Keepers of the Worlds
by thegenuineimitation
Summary: To further his Uncle Vernon's career Harry is exiled to a summer camp where he knows no one and can't speak the language and finds that it is the best summer of his young life.
1. Chapter 1: Summer Snow Storm

**Keepers of the Worlds**

**Chapter One: Summer Snow Storm**

**Summary:** To further his Uncle Vernon's career Harry is exiled to a summer camp where he knows no one and can't speak the language and finds that it is the best summer of his young life.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or Digimon Adventure. Any dialogue you recognize was taken from Digimon Adventure SSN 1 ep. 1.

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, welcome to my brand spanking new Harry Potter/Digimon crossover fic! This story takes place the summer Harry turns eleven for HP and during the course of Digimon Adventure SSN 1 and I plan to have it go through all of the Digimon Adventure episodes for SSN 1 and maybe SSN 2, depending, as well as all of the HP books/Harry's years at school. So, yeah, another big project in a mound of big projects written by a flaky author. Updates will be sporadic, but after this chapter I expect all the chapters will be between 4000 and 6000 words minimum.

Hope you guys enjoy!

**WARNING: **There will be Slash (M/M) elements in later chapters, it will be pretty mild especially considering the age range of the characters but if this squicks you turn back now!

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Harry was enjoying the warm summer sun lying on a large warm rock by the lake and avoiding the crowds of people playing sports, goofing off or just hanging out in the camp ground proper.

It wasn't that Harry didn't want to make friends, on the contrary, he really wanted someone to hang out with and talk to it was just that he didn't speak Japanese very well yet and since he was attending a summer camp in Japan nobody but the camp councillor and an older girl named Mimi with a scary love of pink spoke English. Harry wasn't looking to make friends with an adult even if the camp councillor looked like an alright bloke, adults spent too much time poking their noses where they weren't wanted and never just wanted to hang out. Mimi also seemed perfectly nice but she had a very large pack of giggling fashion obsessed flunkies with whom she hung out and Harry with his raggedy hand-me-downs and broken glasses decidedly did not fit in with that crowd.

Harry marvelled, not for the first time, at the strange turn his summer had taken that he was even having these thoughts.

It all started a few weeks previous when Harry's Uncle Vernon received the opportunity he had apparently been waiting for his entire career. His firm, Grunnings, made drills and landing an exclusive contract with a wealthy Japanese building company would mean a huge promotion and a raise for Uncle Vernon. So when his boss said that this would mean the family would have to spend a few months in Japan for negotiations Uncle Vernon had replied that this wasn't a problem despite the fact that it was, because of Harry.

Harry was the skeleton in the Dursleys' closet. Or rather, in the cupboard under the stairs. His mother had been Aunt Petunia's sister and she and his father had died in a car accident when Harry was small. He had been living with the Dursleys ever since.

Harry wasn't precisely sure why, but his relatives had always hated him. They treated him like he was beneath them. Like an ugly bug or some slime covered creepy crawlie. Rather than giving him one of the two extra bedrooms in their house on Privet Dr. Harry had been squeezed into the cupboard under the stairs and rather than buying him clothes of his own that fit, they saddled him with his cousin's ratty castoffs.

The only reason the neighbours even knew about his existence was because he had to attend school with their children and was sometimes visible doing yard work.

Aunt Petunia spread nasty rumours about him and his penchant for trouble and most of the neighbours after one highly biased diatribe over tea and scones agreed that such a strange ragamuffin of a child had to be bad news. They were all very sympathetic towards his aunt and what they called her tireless patience in the face of such a clearly bad seed.

Uncle Vernon's boss and coworkers had no clue that he had a nephew much less that the boy was living with him and Uncle Vernon was determined to keep it that way because, apparently, his presence lowered the tone of the Dursley family and could jeapordize their opportunities in life. Harry was starting to think that this odd fear of theirs was completely without merit but he didn't bother mentioning it since his thoughts and opinions were worth less than nothing in his relatives' minds.

Since they were unwilling to have Harry acknowledged and since they couldn't leave him with anyone in England for two full months the Dursleys were forced to take him along to Japan and arrange for him to disappear. Uncle Vernon had found what he deemed the perfect solution while browsing the internet for cheap accommodations for kids and pre-teens.

They had barely landed in Tokyo when Harry and his meagre luggage were hustled onto a bus full of children around his age and driven into the countryside for two months of organized fun at a sleep away summer camp.

Harry had never been to camp before, the Dursleys wouldn't have sent him even if he'd been offered the chance, and neither had his cousin Dudley so he wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Camp, according to the things Harry heard eavesdropping on his classmates was meant to be fun and exciting.

Being alone in a strange place with strange people and being unable to communicate effectively was scary at first, but Harry knew how to deal with uncomfotable and scary situations. He had stayed quiet and unobtrusive and hadn't outwardly panicked and everything had gone as smoothly as it possibly could have.

Now after two weeks he was even beginning to enjoy himself. He had no chores, there were no Dursleys, he could eat as much food as he wanted at meals, although the only thing he really recognized was rice, and the days were filled with opportunities to lie in the sun and just relax. He was even beginning to understand most what people were talking about even if he couldn't speak much Japanese himself. It wasn't like he didn't try, either, he just didn't seem to be hearing the same sounds as everyone else so when he tried to immitate them it didn't work out so well.

Inspired by the Asian atmosphere Harry did what he did best, though not when Uncle Vernon was paying attention, and retreated into his imagination to entertain himself. He called his sunny sojourns by the lake meditation and pretended that he was a ninja-in-training which passed the time and was fun.

If the other campers though he was a little odd, well, it was better than being beat up and reviled, which was what happened at school with his cousin and his gang making sure no one wanted to be friends with him. His roommate, Izzy, was really cool too. The red head didn't complain when he practiced walking on his hands across the cabin floor or stood on one foot on the bed post, or stayed up late reading because he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep.

Part of that was probably because Izzy was always so absorbed in whatever it was he was doing on his computer that he barely noticed these oddities, but whatever worked.

Harry was jolted out of his musings by a feather light brush of cold on his cheek. Surprised he opened his eyes to see that it had started to snow. Snow, in the middle of July! Big ponderous flakes drifted lazily from the sky that was quickly turning from blue to an ominous dark grey.

The wind picked up and everyone made a mad dash for the nearest cabins, abandoning sports equipment and leaving the mess and activity tents to be flattened by the sudden storm.

Cabin thirteen, the cabin he shared with Izzy and also the one closest to the lake, was packed with eight other people who were waiting for the summer blizzard to let up. The other kids were murmuring amongst each other as they gathered around the single window and watched the snow pile up.

Harry sat himself next to Izzy folding himself into a lotus position on the end of the other boy's bunk. Izzy, rather than ogling one of nature's stranger phenomena, was tapping at his keyboard rapidly and fiddling with his cell phone looking annoyed when he didn't get the desired response out of either one.

Izzy looked up when Harry sat down on the bed next to him.

"Oh, hey Harry."

Harry cocked his head at Izzy, and gestured to the laptop in clear question. Izzy pulled another annoyed face.

"It's still not working. This storm is making a mess of my infrared internet connection," he explained closing up his laptop and strapping it to his backpack.

Izzy never went anywhere without his backpack but as far as Harry knew the only thing that he carried in the thing were cables and other electronic devices, all of them far more sophisticated looking than some of the stuff his cousin had.

Harry pointed out the window to Izzy. The blizzard had stopped by this point and the other kids were filing out of the cabin eager to play in the two or three inches of snow that had settled on the ground and in the trees, coating the campground in a layer of twinkling white.

"Let's have a toboggan race!" cried one boy.

"I'm gonna build the biggest snowman!" the littlest boy exclaimed dashing outside.

An older kid Harry assumed was his brother by the family resemblance and the worried tone ran out after him.

"TK be careful!"

One of the two girls shivered in her yellow and white tank top.

"It's so cold, and I didn't bring a jacket."

Despite the cold she followed the others outside. The older boy with the glasses took one horrified look outside and began to step back further into the cabin.

"I was worried about catching a summer cold, but this, this is even worse," he moaned.

Mimi bounced up next to him shoving him outside, that girl was far stronger than she looked, before following herself.

"I should have packed my fluffy pink snow boots!"

Harry gestured pointedly outside again.

"Oh!" Izzy said, "No, the storm is still in the atmosphere, just because it stopped snowing doesn't mean that we aren't technically right in the middle of the storm. If I had internet access I could pull up satellite images of the storm cell and show you but—"

Then the first boy, the one wearing goggles on his head of brown hair that was almost as messy as Harry's own, called out to them.

"Hey! What's-your-name, Izzy! You guys have to see this!"

Harry was a bit relieved because when Izzy got going Harry really only understood every other word the redhead said but always felt too guilty to stop his techno-babble. Sharing a curious glance Harry and Izzy left the cabin to join the others standing on the snow covered outcropping overlooking the lake.

In the sky there was a snaking ribbon of blue, green silver and soft pink light cutting through the cloud cover. Harry gaped at the sky. He'd never seen anything like it.

"Wow, it's so beautiful, magical even!" Mimi said delightedly.

"Yes, but what is it?" said Izzy.

"Maybe an aurora?" suggested the girl in the toque and yellow tank top.

"You mean aurora borealis, the northern lights? That's impossible. You see that in Alaska, we're way too far south," Izzy replied.

"Tell that to the snow," the girl retorted.

"I really think we should get back inside before we all come down with pneumonia," said the boy with the glasses nervously.

"And miss this?" said the older of the two brothers rhetorically, "The sky is like…short circuiting."

"Hey!" the boy with the goggles suddenly exclaimed, "What's that?"

He pointed up into the sky past the lazily undulating aurora or whatever it was, and squinting Harry saw a spiral like a green pinwheel with a light forming at the centre. His jaw dropped even as he listened for Izzy to give an explanation.

Before the redhead could present any theories though the light suddenly split into eight separate glowing balls and sped towards them crashing into the snow at their feet with loud booming noises. Harry and the other kids shouted in alarm and the older brother wrapped the younger in a protective embrace as the ground shook and snow went flying.

"Everyone, are you alright?" asked the girl in the yellow tank top when the snow had settled back to earth.

"We're still here," said the brother.

"That was scary," Mimi declared clutching onto her pink cowboy hat for dear life.

"What was that?" demanded the nervous boy with the glasses.

Izzy crawled over to where the nearest ball of light had crashed.

"Meteors?" he suggested peering at the hole, it started to glow blue, a behavior decidedly not related to meteors, "Okay, so it's not meteors."

The others gasped as the things, whatever they were, floated up out of the holes in a ribbon of soft blue light. The boy with the goggles was the first one brave enough to reach out to try and grab the floating object. When nothing happened to him the others quickly followed suit, although the nervous boy took so long to work up the courage to do it that his, whatever it was, almost escaped.

Harry looked down at the small device in his hands. It was small enough to fit easily in the palm of his hand, vaguely square in shape and it had a black screen and a few small buttons set into the front as well as what looked like an antenna. The back had a small clip. Harry watched as the boy with the goggles clipped his onto his belt and quickly copied him.

Izzy was examining the device before him with naked fascination on his face as was the girl in the yellow tank top.

"What are these?" she asked.

The little whatchamacallits were making a soft very mechanical whistling noise.

"My guess is some sort of miniature remote digital apparatus," Izzy answered.

"What, no instructions?" joked the boy with the goggles.

Harry noticed that the screen of Izzy's device had gone from black to a glowing green and checking his own device he saw that it was doing the same.

"Oh no!" shrieked Mimi pointing with one hand while the other hand kept a firm grip on her precious hat.

"Forget the instructions! Surf's up!"

The group looked up from the strange electrical thingamabobs to see that the lake had become a sheer wall of water. They screamed as suddenly the world seemed to tilt and they began falling, tumbling sideways into what had been a lake and was now doing a fair impression of the Parting of the Red Sea.

Harry thought he heard Mimi's voice but as he tumbled through water and air and lights and color he became so confused he couldn't be sure if he'd actually heard her or if it was just something he'd imagined. Then he hit something solid and everything went black.

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**AN:** Alrighty then folks, that was chapter one! Leave me a review to let me know how you liked it, I love hearing from you guys and am totally open to questions, comments, criticisms, rants, and suggestions about the plot. This should stick close to canon for the first few chapters but I'd like to diverge a bit and welcome all new ideas.

Until next time!

-thegenuineimitation


	2. Chapter 2: Digital Monsters

**Keepers of the Worlds**

**Chapter Two: Digital Monsters**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or Digimon Adventure. Anything you recognize was taken from SSN 1 ep. 1.

**Author's Note: **First thing's first, thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted and favourited! You guys rock! Secondly, a bit of clarification, Harry is in the hello, my name is...where is the bathroom stage of spoken Japanese but after his weeks at camp he UNDERSTANDS most of what is being said. Thirdly, the story!

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When Harry woke it was to the sound of someone calling his name.

"Harry. Harry it's time to wake up."

His eyes fluttered open and he was immediately accosted by an odd looking creature about the size of a soccer ball. Harry's eyes widened as he backed away from the strange thing, scrambling backwards crab-style until his back hit the trunk of a tree and he couldn't go any further.

"Hey Koromon, my partner is awake!"

The creature speaking was a smooth robin's egg blue ball with large purple eyes and two stubby bone horns sticking out of its head. It grinned at Harry revealing a mouthful of pearly white baby fangs. Harry shied away from the creature even more because baby fangs were, after all, still fangs.

"Lucky for you," answered another strange creature with a huff, "Tai! It's time to get up, Tai!"

This one was light pink in color and had long flopping ears rather than horns it was perched quite comfortably on the chest of the boy with the goggles.

"Tai, yoo hoo, Tai!" the pink creature called again.

"Yeah, I'm okay," muttered the boy with the goggles, whose name was apparently Tai, and didn't Harry feel guilty when that strange pink creature knew the boy's name and he didn't, his eyes blinking open.

"Maybe you shouldn't get so close, you might scare him," the blue creature said, "They're very twitchy."

It turned out that the pink creature, Koromon, should have listened to his blue counterpart because when Tai focussed on what exactly he was seeing he freaked out sending the little pink ball flying and scrambling backwards with a loud cry.

"That is the last time I eat camp food!" he exclaimed.

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Tai. I'm your friend! I'm your friend! I'm your friend!" Koromon exclaimed bouncing up and down excitedly, apparently unfazed at having been tossed around.

"Just what are you?" Tai demanded getting to his feet, "Have you had your rabies shot?"

"Everything's going to be alright now Tai! I've been waiting for you!"

Tai caught Koromon instinctively when the exuberant little ball launched itself at him and held him out at arms-length.

"Waiting for me?"

"That's right. My name's Koromon and we're…partners!"

"And you are my partner, Harry," said the blue creature who had moved closer while Harry was watching Tai and Koromon and was now nuzzling his calf, "I'm Sotomon."

Harry was more than a little confused. He'd fallen into a lake, sideways, hit his head and woken up to find that two balls with eyes apparently knew more about what was going on than he did. Maybe he was hallucinating? Harry felt his own head for a fever but couldn't tell one way or another if he actually had one. Could he really hallucinate such a strange scene?

"Hey," Tai said suddenly realizing that Harry was there, "Are you okay? Do you know what's going on?" he asked.

Harry shook his head no and tentatively reached out a finger and poked the little blue creature that called itself Sotomon. It didn't disappear and was, in fact, quite solid. The creature was soft like good suede and it made a cute little humming noise when Harry stroked its head.

"Alright…you Koromon, what do you mean you've been waiting for me and how do you know my name? Start talking pal!"

Apparently Tai was just as freaked out as Harry, which was strangely comforting as it meant the boy probably wasn't a hallucination. A hallucination wouldn't be freaked out. Or would it? Harry wished that he knew for sure even if it didn't seem like he would be able to do anything either way.

Before Koromon could say anything he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Tai?"

"Izzy is that you?"

"It's me," Izzy confirmed stepping out of the undergrowth and into the clearing where Harry and Tai had landed an unsettled expression on his face, "And I've got this little pink thing following me everywhere."

"It is me, Motimon, at your service. Anybody want lunch?"

The creature following Izzy wasn't ball shaped like the other two. It looked more like a waddling ghost. It was a softer shade of pink than Tai's Koromon and distinctly lacking in fangs.

Tai squealed and dropped Koromon.

"That makes three of them! What are they?"

"Three?" Izzy glanced around the clearing, "Oh Harry, you're here too. That's a relief. The others should be nearby."

"Izzy, man, try to concentrate. What are these things?"

"We're not things!" Sotomon protested.

"Oh!" exclaimed Izzy's creature bouncing into the clearing upon spotting the rest of them, "Allow me to introduce myself. My friends call me Motimon, everyone does actually."

"I believe those miniature remote digital gadgets have taken on an actual life form," Izzy said, fingering the one he had strapped to the shoulder strap of his backpack, "I don't remember anything like this in the camp brochure," he added.

"You think?" said Tai sarcastically, "It's weird."

"It's so odd, the vegetation is lush but the soil seems perfectly common," Izzy said bending down to poke at the loose dirt and grasses at the base of one tree.

"Nothing is common in Digi World," said Motimon.

"That's right, Tai, you're in the Digi World!" Koromon cheered.

"Just where is the Digi World?" Tai asked looking around.

Harry could understand his confusion. Japan was warmer than England but there hadn't been any of this thick humidity or these giant tropical plants floating around their campsite.

"I don't care so much about where it is, I want to know what it is," Izzy interjected plucking a leaf from a nearby bush and bringing it up to his face to examine.

Harry sighed and got to his feet. Hesitantly he opened up his arms and Sotomon bounced into them gleefully. He really was soft and cuddly, not to mention way nicer than Mrs. Figg's cats.

"I'm going to take a look around for myself," said Tai climbing up into a nearby tree with the graceful ease that spoke of long practice.

Koromon followed him using an athletic combination of bouncing and swinging with his ears.

"I don't recognize any of this flora. What about you Harry?"

Harry shook his head no and then shrugged to indicate that he didn't have much experience with tropical shrubbery either way.

They both looked up when they heard a roar, followed by Tai's alarmed shout.

"What's going on up there?" Izzy demanded.

Izzy and Harry watched, frozen in shock and no small amount of terror as a red and black beetle the size of a transport truck flew at Tai and Koromon, taking off the top branches of the tree they were sitting in and narrowly missing the boy and his little pink tag-a-long.

It roared again, a horrible sound that Harry would never have expected a beetle to make. Then again he also didn't expect beetles to ever be much bigger than walnuts so maybe his logic was flawed.

"Oh no!" cried Motimon, "That is one seriously bad digimon even when he's in good mood!"

"That's just great!" squeaked Izzy sarcastically.

"He's coming back!" shouted Koromon.

"That's Kuwagamon an insectoid digimon, he's vicious and ruthless with teeth like knives and scissor hands that can chop through anything!" Sotomon said worriedly from his spot in Harry's arms.

Harry and Izzy watched, horrified but unable to look away, as the beetle made a second run at Tai and Koromon up in their tree. Before Kuwagamon could reach Tai Koromon leapt out of the tree spitting pink bubbles at the much bigger creature.

Harry thought it was meant to be some kind of attack but it barely seemed to faze the giant Kuwagamon. It ploughed forward knocking Tai out of the tree. The older boy grabbed at branches, slowing his descent, and hit the ground with a hollow thud and a whoosh of air.

"Tai are you okay?" asked Izzy rushing to his side.

Koromon fell too, hitting the ground and bouncing once before lying on his side clearly tired and bruised.

"Little guy!" Tai exclaimed brushing past Izzy, "You should pick on bugs your own size. What did you say your name was? Koromon?"

"That's me," Koromon agreed as Tai lifted him into his arms.

"You're pretty brave for being such a little guy. I'm impressed," Tai told the little pink creature.

Koromon smiled.

"It was nothing."

"Tai he's coming back!" Izzy shouted pointing at the sky and the rapidly growing red dot that was Kuwagamon.

"Oh dear, oh dear, quickly everyone this way!" cried Motimon bouncing into the forest.

"Come on!" Tai shouted dashing after the little pink creature.

Izzy and Harry followed them spurred on by the roars of the giant beetle that got louder and louder with every step and the crunching sound of the trees being cut down to clear his path.

"Hurry up!" Motimon urged, "For having two long legs you boys are awfully slow! Quick inside this tree!"

Motimon threw himself at the trunk of the tree and disappeared. Harry blinked not sure he'd seen what he thought he'd seen. He glanced at Tai and Izzy on either side of him and saw that they looked equally shocked so he probably hadn't been imagining it.

Then Tai grabbed Izzy's arm with his free hand and ran at the tree. They too disappeared.

"Harry! You have to go in the tree! Come on, hurry up!" Sotomon said urgently.

Hearing another roar, even louder than the last few, Harry closed his eyes and followed the others into the tree.

Inside the tree was hollow and didn't look like a tree at all but rather like the inside of a vertical metal pipe. They could even see the sky and the surrounding foliage out the top of it.

"What kind of tree is this?" asked Izzy sounding fascinated.

"It's a hiding tree silly," said Motimon.

"Quiet, he's coming!" Sotomon hissed.

They all crouched low to the ground their hands over their heads.

"Don't make a sound," said Koromon in a whisper.

The roaring got louder and louder as did the crashing of the trees, looking up the inner tube structure of the tree Harry watched as Kuwagamon flew overhead, not noticing them. Soon they couldn't hear the roar any longer.

"All clear!" came a female voice.

The boys all jumped in alarm at the sudden sound.

"No need to hide anymore."

The boys tentatively stuck their heads out of the hiding tree and the owner of the voice turned out to be the girl in the blue toque and yellow tank top.

"Sora!" Tai exclaimed relieved.

"You can come out now," she chuckled.

"We were just planning the trap we were going to set for that big bug," Tai said lying through his teeth as they stepped out of the tree and back into the forest proper.

Tai made a surprised yelp when he caught sight of the little pink ball at Sora's feet. It was a pretty little thing with big green eyes and an odd flower looking construction on the top of its head.

"I am enchanted to meet you friends of Sora, welcome," she said formally, for the little flower creature's voice was clearly female.

"Guys, meet Pyocomon, my own, personal something or another," Sora said proudly.

"Looks kinda like a radish," Tai commented bending down to get a closer look at her.

"It must be another one of them, like the others," said Izzy.

They glanced over to where Koromon, Sotomon and Motimon were standing watching the proceedings and just as they did yet another small creature dashed out of the underbrush. This one was white with long thin floppy ears, like Koromon's, and kind of resembled a puppy.

"Uh oh," said Tai.

"Their popping up everywhere," said Izzy.

"Hello, I am Tokomon," said the puppy-like creature then he turned to face the patch of the forest he'd emerged from and shouted, "Hey TK over here!"

"Coming!"

The youngest boy from camp dashed out of the bushes after his creature, waving cheerfully and clearly unafraid of the little guy.

"Wait for me Tokomon!"

"TK!" called the boy's brother running after him.

He had a furry looking tan coloured ball-type creature with a single horn sticking out of its head tucked under his arm.

"Hey Matt, you too?" greeted Tai addressing the older brother.

"Yeah, I'm here too."

"No, I meant that, under your arm," Tai clarified.

"Oh, that, yeah…well…"

"Hello," said the tan creature, "You appear pleasant. Tsunomon is my name and I am quite pleased to meet you."

They all glanced from Matt and his Tsunomon to where TK and Tokomon were laughing and cuddling like they had always known each other.

Suddenly the relative peace and quiet was broken by screaming. The entire group jumped at the sudden noise and another person burst out of the bushes from the south. It was the nervous boy with the glasses and he appeared to be running for his life. Harry glanced up looking for the red beetle thing from before, but there was no sign of it.

"Joe?"

"Help me!" cried Joe, panting from his run, "This thing, this thing, it won't leave me alone!"

"Hey, who're you calling a thing! I'm no stuffed animal," A dark grey flying creature with fin-like arms, a tail, an elongated snout and a shock of orange fur on its head sailed into the clearing popping up over Joe's shoulder, "The name is Pukamon."

Joe shuddered and moaned, clearly terrified of his grinning little follower.

"What's wrong with you guys? Don't you see this creature hanging off me? And those creatures standing right over there! They're –they're everywhere! What are they?"

"We're—"

"Digimon, digital monsters!" chorused all the creatures.

"Digital monsters," repeated Izzy.

"Yes, digimon."

"But we're not just digital monsters," Koromon insisted bouncing energetically, "We're kinda cute!"

"And very loyal," added Tsunomon.

"With beautiful hair," said Pyocomon.

"Or maybe no hair at all," Motimon said.

"We can be funny," laughed Pukamon.

"And adorable," cooed Tokomon.

"Most importantly we belong to you," said Sotomon.

"It's a pleasure to meet each of you. My name's Tai and these are my friends from camp. This is Sora."

"Nice place you've got here, except for the bugs," she said with a warm smile.

"The self-proclaimed cool one over there is Matt."

"No autographs, please," Matt joked.

"The smaller happier version of Matt is his little brother Takeru."

"TK, call me TK, and I'm not as small as I look," said the youngest.

"And this is Joe. Izzy over here is our computer expert."

"Does this place have internet access?" Izzy asked only half-joking.

"And this is uh…" Tai trailed off when he got to Harry.

"This is Harry," Izzy jumped in and Harry gave the group a shy wave, "He was my roommate at camp, he doesn't speak much Japanese yet seeing as he's from England but he can understand you just fine."

"Cool," said Tai, "Is that everybody?"

"What about that girl with the funny pink hat?" asked Sora.

"Mimi," Harry piped up.

"Yeah, that does sound like Mimi," Tai agreed with a nod and a fond groan, "Has anyone seen her?"

Everyone shook their heads no.

"Well," said Izzy optimistically, "Perhaps she's off picking flowers, or going on a nature hike, or…"

Izzy trailed off as they heard the distant sound of a now-familiar angry roar followed by a girl's scream.

"Somebody help me!"

The kids turned in the direction of the scream and began to run towards it.

"Okay, so she's not picking flowers," muttered Izzy.

They burst into a clearing in time to see Mimi running from what looked to be her digimon partner, a green ball with four legs and two leaves sprouting from its head.

"Mimi, it's okay…" Tai started to say.

Then it became clear that Mimi wasn't running from her digimon but from Kuwagamon who appeared over the tops of the trees, roared and made a pass at the kids close enough to ruffle their hair, sending chunks of trees flying with a second frustrated roar as he overshot his target.

Mimi dropped to her knees panting hard.

"Are you alright?" asked her digimon.

"Think so," breathed Mimi.

"Don't worry, Tanemon's here to protect you."

Sora ran up to the other girl and knelt down beside her putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, we're here now."

"Oh, Sora."

"He's coming back!" warned Tai unnecessarily as everyone could hear the approaching roar as Kuwagamon readied himself for another pass.

They started running but in no time the giant red beetle digimon was all but breathing down their necks.

"Down!" Tai ordered.

The kids and their digimon all hit the ground at the last possible second and Kuwagamon overshot them again.

"Will this nightmare never end?" Joe moaned, "My mom is going to want a complete and total refund."

"Here he comes again!" warned Matt.

"Alright that's it, I'm done running!" Tai declared bravely, his hands clenching into fists.

"What else are we supposed to do?" Sora demanded.

"She's right," said Matt, "There's no way we can fight that thing!"

"Not and win anyway," Izzy put in.

Tai made an annoyed noise and looked like he was going to be stubborn for a long moment but he gave in and the group continued to run. Harry pulled into the lead fairly quickly, used as he was to running from Dudley and his gang, and skidded to a sudden halt as he came to the edge of the plateau. The others slid to a stop behind him most of them panting for breath.

"Great," said Matt fatalistically, "Did anyone bring a helicopter?"

Tai inched towards the edge of the cliff testing the ground with his feet and peering over the edge.

"Careful Tai," Sora said worriedly.

"There's no way down," Tai said after a moment, "We're going to have to find another way."

"Another way to where?" Sora demanded.

He turned and made to return to the group when Kuwagamon finally caught up with them bursting through the trees. Everybody flattened themselves to the ground.

"Look out Tai!" cried Sora when Kuwagamon made a hairpin turn and readied himself for another pass at the boy on the cliff.

"Here I go!" shouted Koromon bouncing past Tai and into the air and blasting the larger digimon with his pink bubble attack.

It was just as ineffectual as the last time and Kuwagamon ploughed through the small pink digimon with the same contempt he showed for trees.

"Digimon attack!" cried Tanemon as the whole group of smaller digimon launched themselves into the air with angry battle cries spewing pink bubbles.

"Pyocomon!" shouted Sora worriedly.

Kuwagamon roared in annoyance and veered off course to crash into the trees leaving the small digimon in-training collapsed on the cliff.

"Koromon," Tai said picking up his digimon and holding him carefully, "Are you crazy? Why'd you do it?"

"Sorry, I'm trying to make a good impression."

"Crazy little guy," Tai said again.

Each of the group ran to their digimon scooping them up off the ground.

"Oh, no. Pyocomon…"

"Tanemon, talk to me."

"They must be programmed for courage," Izzy said his voice wavering as he lifted Motimon into his arms.

Harry stroked his digimon holding him close.

"Sotomon, I'm here, you're going to be alright, just rest a bit, everything's going to be fine," he said softly in English.

"Tokomon, what's wrong? Tokomon!"

"Tsunomon! Hey, Tsunomon wake up!"

Even Joe clutched his partner close.

"Pukamon, wake up," he said.

They all heard the roar as Kuwagamon once again came at them, this time on foot.

"Oh no!"

"Get back!"

The kids got as close as they dared to the edge of the cliff and huddled close together still clinging tightly to their new digimon friends.

"I was hoping they'd driven him off," Sora said.

"Me too," said Tai, "Guess he had other plans, huh."

Kuwagamon roared again taking three awkward but effective steps forward towards the group.

"I wish I'd brought my bug spray," Matt said.

"He's slow on the ground, if we time it correctly we might be able to slip past him," Izzy said.

"Right," Tai nodded, "Get ready to run!"

"No!" Koromon exclaimed, "We stand and fight! It's the only way out of this."

"Give it a rest already!" Tai exclaimed.

"Koromon's right, it's time we showed what we're made of!" said Motimon.

"No, don't!" Izzy protested.

"They're right," Pyocomon cheeped.

"You can't, you're no match for him Pyocomon!" Sora said.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" cried Tsunomon and Pukamon straining as Joe and Matt tried to keep their grip.

"We can do it! We can do it! We can do it!" Tokomon chanted chomping at the air.

"Tanemon," said Mimi softly when her digimon turned to face the beetle digimon a set expression on her face, "You too?"

"We can do this Mimi, you'll see!"

"I'm sorry Tai!" said Koromon.

"Let's go!" cried Pukamon.

All at once the small digimon surged to life tearing themselves from their partners' holds and bouncing forward in a full frontal charge of the much bigger and meaner Kuwagamon.

"Come on, digimon!" yelled Tsunomon.

"It's useless!" Sora cried, "Pyocomon!"

"No, don't! Motimon!"

"Wait, don't do it Tsunomon!"

"No!"

"Turn around! Come back, Pukamon!"

"Tanemon, be careful!"

"Please! Please Sotomon! No!"

Tai started running after them.

"No don't! Koromon, come back!"

There was a sudden whirring beeping noise and when Harry looked down at his belt he saw that the devices they'd found back at the campground had begun to glow again. Harry looked back up and he could hardly believe what he was seeing. Just as before there came a strange swirling light from above, though this time it was rainbow colored rather than green, that seemed to be absorbed into the digimon.

As they approached Kuwagamon the digimon began to emit light as well, the light getting brighter and brighter until none of the children could bear to look. Then they heard the digimon shout, their voices seeming to echo and change.

"Koromon digivolve to – Agumon!"

"Pyocomon digivolve to – Piyomon!"

"Motimon digivolve to – Tentomon!"

"Sotomon digivolve to – Senamon!"

"Tsunomon digivolve to – Gabumon!"

"Tokomon digivolve to – Patamon!"

"Pukamon digivolve to – Gomamon!"

"Tanemon digivolve to – Palmon!"

After what seemed to Harry like a very long time but in reality was only a few seconds, the light faded to reveal that all of their small digimon had changed into different looking creatures entirely. In fact it wasn't quite clear just from their appearances which digimon had been which digimon, yet the children still instinctively recognized their own partners.

"What happened to the little guys?" asked Sora.

"They…got bigger," Tai said his amazement clear.

The now bigger digimon launched themselves bodily at Kuwagamon who swatted them away contemptuously with one arm, still being much bigger than them.

"You asked for it!" said the orange dinosaur type digimon, "Pepper Breath!"

A fireball the size of a basketball erupted from his mouth and caught Kuwagamon full in the face. The beetle digimon roared in anger and pain. He made to fly off, being at an advantage in the air but the plant type digimon that Harry was sure had been Tanemon shouted "Poison Ivy!" and her fingers elongated into green and purple vines and hooked around his leg pulling him back to earth.

The tan colored digimon with ears that doubled as wings got above Kuwagamon and shouted "Boom Bubble!"

What could only be described as a ball of whirling air hit the beetle on the head dazing him and forcing him to land. Then the smaller beetle type digimon cried "Super Shocker!" and a bolt of electricity hit Kuwagamon causing him to stumble. The white and purple seal-type digimon then rolled underneath his foot, tripping him and bringing the overgrown bug to one knee.

Harry's digimon launched himself bodily at the bug.

"Razor Claw!" he shouted, scoring three long rents in Kuwagamon's red shell with his new talons.

Kuwagamon roared in rage.

"Stand back," the dinosaur digimon warned him and the plant type digimon, and they quickly scrambled away, "Pepper Breath!"

"Blue Blaster!" cried the blue dog-type digimon blue fire erupting from his opened mouth.

"Spiral Twister!" shouted the pink bird digimon that, from her voice, must once have been Pyocomon, green spiraling flames forming before her.

The digimon all re-grouped between their human companions and the harried looking Kuwagamon.

"Alright, now, all together!" ordered the orange dinosaur type digimon.

All at once the five digimon with long-range energy attacks hit Kuwagamon as hard as they could and burning with multicolored fire the massive beetle digimon fell back into the trees with a loud crash.

For a long moment there was silence while the humans gaped at their partners.

"They made vaporware out of him," Izzy said in awe, breaking the silence.

"That was amazing," Tai echoed.

Then the digimon turned, triumphant, and in most cases fang-filled, grins stretching their new faces as they ran back to where their partners were cheering wildly.

"Told you we could do it!" cried the dinosaur digimon triumphantly.

Tai ran straight up to him meeting him half-way engulfing the digimon in a bear hug made a bit awkward by the fact that his partner was now more than half his size.

"Koromon! Or Agumon, or whoever you are! You did it! You did it! You did it!"

Harry bent down to scoop up his digimon glad to find that he weighed no more than he had in his ball-like form. Sotomon was still that teal blue color with suede-soft skin, but he looked more like an overgrown furless fox, with four three-toed bird-legs tipped with sharp talons. His horns had also gotten a bit longer and he'd grown a stripe of purple fur along his spine that ended in a cute fluffy little triangle of a tail.

"Harry! Did you see me? Wasn't I awesome?" asked the digimon his puff of a tail waving enthusiastically.

Harry just hugged him more tightly in answer.

"How about that super shocker? Pretty wizard, yeah?" the smaller beetle type digimon said, hovering near Izzy, who had a proud smile and a big thumbs-up for his digimon.

All around him the other kids and their digimon were laughing and embracing, the relief of not being eaten by Kuwagamon making them more than a little giddy. Some of the kids, like Matt and Joe, seemed a little leery of their partners in these new forms, while others accepted them without any reservations.

Then Sora cried, "Look out!" and Tai and Agumon were forced to scramble out of the way as Kuwagamon, not defeated and looking extremely pissed off, embedded his razor sharp pincers in the cliff where the pair had been standing only a moment before.

"Can't this guy take a hint?" snapped Harry's digimon.

"Guess we celebrated too soon," said Tai.

As Kuwagamon tried to pull his pincers out of the stone of the cliff the ground beneath their feet began to shake. The kids and their digimon cried out as they were knocked off their feet by the shaking and with an ominous crack the edge of the cliff they were standing on broke away sending them free falling into the space beyond.

* * *

**AN:** Okay, so, I get the feeling from some of the reviews I recieved for the first chapter that I am going to be diverging farther off the canon track for Digimon than I originally thought just on a purely conceptual basis totally apart from my plans for the plot. I hope you guys will stick with it despite this but I felt it was only fair that I give you guys the warning if you're finicky about that kind of thing.

Still a lot of canon dialogue, too much for my liking but *shrugs* what're you gonna do? I'll try and shift more into my own script during the next few chapters and involve Harry and Senamon a bit more hopefully.

To answer some of the questions brought up in reviews: I have an idea of what I want Harry's crest to be, but no he will not be replacing Kari as the Child of Light.

In any case please let me know what you thought by reviewing! I really love hearing from you guys and it's kind of amazing what an inbox full of review alerts can do to cure writer's block!


	3. Chapter 3: The Birth of Greymon

**Keepers of the Worlds**

**Chapter Three: The Birth of Greymon**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or Digimon Adventure. Anything you recognize was taken from Digimon Adventure SSN 1 ep. 2.

**Author's Note: **Two updates in one day! A rare occurence indeed! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review, alert and favourite! Love you guys! Now on to the story!

* * *

Harry held tightly to his digimon, as much because he was scared as because he didn't want his strange new friend to get hurt by the falling debris. On either side of him the three digimon that could fly tried to catch, and thereby rescue, their human friends.

"Sora!"

"Izzy!"

"TK!"

They grabbed hold, but it became immediately apparent that the kids were just too heavy for the digimon to keep in the air because they stopped flying and started falling again pretty quickly.

The plant-type digimon, thinking quickly, caught hold of Mimi and then tried to use her vines to cling to an outcropping on the cliff face. For a moment it seemed to have worked as they stopped falling and hung there swinging for a second, then a whole new piece of rock came away from the cliff and Mimi and her digimon continued to fall.

Tai, Harry, Joe and their digimon all hit the water of the rushing river below first. Harry immediately went under, flailing wildly in a panic. He didn't know how to swim! Luckily his digimon did know how and managed to push Harry to the surface in time for them to hear Joe's seal type digimon call out "Fish Net!"

A raft of fish formed under their legs pushing them back to the surface. Harry coughed up the water he'd accidentally swallowed.

"Harry! Harry! Are you okay?" asked his digimon, poking his nose against Harry's neck.

Harry nodded pushing his wet fringe out of his eyes and looking up to make sure the others were alright.

Matt and his digimon hit the raft dead on, and Sora, TK, Mimi, Izzy and their digimon followed soon after.

"This is some ride," Tai commented as he saw just what had fished him from the river.

"Look there!" Matt shouted.

Kuwagamon's little trick had destabilized the entire cliff and both the tonnes of rock and the giant digimon were now hurtling through the air towards them.

"Oh no!" Sora cried.

"Faster!" shouted Joe's digimon friend.

The fish picked up the pace and they sped down the river with the current, the chunks of debris missing them by a good ways. Kuwagamon recovered enough to fly off, but the debris created a huge wave that had the kids and their partners clinging to the fish raft for dear life as it swamped their ride washing over them and soaking their clothes.

The fish deposited the coughing and gasping kids and their waterlogged digimon onto the river bank, on the opposite side of the water from Kuwagamon, and faded back into the water with the aftershocks of the wave.

The group sat or lay slumped on the ground exhausted from the whole ordeal.

Finally Matt spoke.

"I knew we'd be okay, I wasn't worried."

If Harry could have found the strength he would have thrown something at the older blond as it was he turned his head and shot him a disgusted look.

"What was that?" panted Joe his glasses dangling off the tip of his nose, "A floating fish market."

"Lucky for us those fish were having a school reunion," laughed Joe's digimon, "I'm only kidding, those fish are really good friends of mine, I just asked them to give us a hand."

"And I this time I thought I was allergic to seafood, thanks!" said Joe with a rare smile, "Oh, I guess it's not Pukamon anymore?"

"I'm Gomamon now," answered the seal type creature shaking his head with a smile.

"Gomamon, hmm."

"And I guess you're not Tokomon, either," TK said examining his digimon.

"Nuh uh, now I'm Patamon," the digimon with wings for ears replied.

"It's all because we digivolved," Agumon explained as the kids and digimon got to their feet.

"I don't think that that word is in my dictionary," Tai said, confused.

Izzy was quicker to catch on.

"I see, so digivolving is what happens when they advance to the next level and become more powerful than before."

"Right," his digimon agreed, "All of us digivolved, I went from Motimon to Tentomon."

"I digivolved from Pyocomon to Piyomon," the pink bird type digimon informed a shocked looking Sora.

"First I was Tsunomon, then Gabumon," Matt's digimon added.

"I used to be Sotomon, but now I'm Senamon," Harry's digimon said winding through the boy's legs like a cat.

"I changed from Tanemon to Palmon," said the plant-type digimon.

"And I was Koromon before I digivolved into Agumon," Agumon said, just in case his partner still didn't get it.

Tai put his hands behind his head and considered the small orange dinosaur before him.

"When you digivolved you certainly got a whole lot bigger. Does this mean that you're something else now or are you still digimon?"

"Digimon," Agumon replied, "But I needed your help Tai."

"Me? What did I do?"

"You see, digivolving is a very difficult process. In order to be successful I had to share your energy," Agumon explained.

"Most digimon spend years storing enough energy to digivolve to their next level," Senamon added, "This way was much faster."

"Really?" said Tai.

"I guess you guys don't run on batteries," Sora commented to Piyomon.

"Sure don't!" Piyomon cheeped in reply.

"But how do you access my energy?" asked Izzy turning to Tentomon.

"Even we don't know everything about what happened up there," shrugged Tentomon.

"Thanks for my magical powers!" cheered Palmon doing a short dance.

"The whole thing makes my head spinny," Mimi complained pouting.

"So I helped you change, that is so cool!" TK exclaimed.

"Yep, sure is," agreed Patamon.

"My parents warned me about strangers," said Joe eying Gomamon suspiciously.

It seemed the older boy didn't like the idea of something being able to access his energy without his giving permission or even knowing about it beforehand.

"I'm not a stranger Joe, I'm your friend for life," said Gomamon seriously.

"We all are," Senamon added earnestly, "It had to be you, Harry, I couldn't have digivolved if you weren't my partner."

"He's right," said Gabumon nodding his furred, horned head in agreement, "We digimon each share a special bond with our chosen partners."

"Hmm," said Joe skeptically.

"Okay, c'mon guys, enough philosophy, what're we going to do next?" demanded Matt.

"If only there was a payphone nearby, we could call the police or the fire department or my mother," said Joe.

"But we don't even know where we are," Tai said.

"But we do know where we started. Up there, on that mountain," said Sora.

Everyone glanced back the way they had come. There above the thick treeline, was the peak of the mountain they'd fallen from. Seeming much farther away than even a hundred foot fall and a trip downstream could warrant. Harry definitely was not looking forward to trying to get back up there.

"I say we forget about going back and explore around here," said Matt, clearly of the same mind as Harry.

"I'm not exploring anywhere," Joe said crossing his arms over his chest, "I say we stay right where we are."

"That's what they say to do in all those boring safety classes," Mimi added, "Stay put when you get lost so that the people looking for you can find you."

"Yeah, and wait for that giant bug to come get us. We need to find a road leading some place to get away from here!"

"Hmm, Matt's right, but without a compass we don't even know which way is north," Izzy sighed.

"Wait I do!" said Tentomon.

"Well, which way is it?" asked Izzy.

"It's the opposite of south!" the insect digimon declared cheerfully.

Izzy groaned exasperatedly but Tentomon at least seemed to be completely in earnest with his answer.

"If we could get back to where we were before we might be able to find some clues as to why we're here in this place," Sora said.

"Wait, are there more monsters around like that big flying bug?" demanded Mimi.

"Sure are," Palmon answered cheerfully.

"Ick!"

"Those monsters don't scare me," said Matt with bravado.

"Wait, are there any humans on this Island?" Tai asked Agumon.

"Humans? You mean others like you?"

"Yeah!"

"No," said Agumon shaking his head, "You're the first ever; there's never been anything here except digimon before."

"Okay, so you're all digimon, but these monsters, they're all digimon too?" said Tai.

"That's right," Senamon replied, "Most of them are just digivolved to a higher level, so they're simply bigger and stronger than we are right now."

"That's less than comforting," said Izzy dryly.

"It's creepy and dangerous here, and what happens when it gets dark!" Sora broke in suddenly shivering even though it had to have been thirty degrees even in the shade.

"Who says it ever gets dark?" put in Matt.

"That would be a highly unnatural phenomenon," Izzy said his voice dripping with scorn.

"What about this place is natural?" asked Joe rhetorically.

"Well, we're not getting anything accomplished sitting around here," Tai announced marching parallel to the river.

"Hang on a second, where do you think you're going?"

"Back up on that cliff, off this way is where I saw the ocean," Tai said, "There might be a boat or something."

"The ocean?" echoed Matt, "Maybe we can all water-ski home."

"Ha ha, very funny," said Sora sarcastically.

"Agumon just said there were no people here, and there never have been. Why would there be boats when there are no people around to use them?" Harry said, mostly to himself, in English.

"I don't know," answered Senamon, "What's a boat?"

"Hey!" Izzy exclaimed, "You understood Harry!"

"Of course I did," Senamon said, cocking his head to one side in confusion, "Didn't you? He seemed to be speaking pretty clearly to me. Hey, Harry, I don't think your human friends can hear you very well you'd better speak up!"

Harry flushed a bright red as the whole group turned to stare curiously at him and Senamon.

"It's not that we can't hear him necessarily, Senamon," Izzy explained, "But Harry was speaking in his native language, English, and out of all of us kids here only Mimi speaks that language very well."

"We digimon can all understand Harry just fine, Izzy, it must be only you humans who have troubles with this language business," Tentomon said.

"Harry is right though," Mimi said with a long sigh, brushing invisible lint off the fringed skirt of her pink dress, "If Agumon is right and there really aren't any people here, there won't be any boats even if we do make it all the way to the ocean."

"They're right," Sora agreed with a nod, "I know it's a long way but I still think we should try and get back up on that mountain. It's where we landed, it's where all the clues about how we got here will be and it's where any people will come looking for us first when they notice we're missing."

"If they can even get here," said Matt fatalistically, "I don't know about you guys but I remember falling sideways through the lake to get here. Even if they did figure out what happened to us would they be able to follow us at all?"

"Matt's right," Tai said with a frown, "I remember it being like that too and if all of this is true it looks like we're going to have to rescue ourselves."

"I don't think that Tai's idea is such a bad one," Harry piped up shyly, speaking in English, "If we get out of this forest we could build a big signal fire on the beach and airplanes passing overhead or boats that have a route that passes this island might see it and come investigate. I saw that in a film once."

Senamon relayed this information to the linguistically challenged of the group quickly.

"Ooh, a bonfire! That sounds wonderful, I only wish we had marshmallows!" squealed Mimi.

"Hey, that's a pretty good idea!" Tai agreed ruffling Harry's hair fondly.

Harry huffed when this caused it to stick up even more messily than before.

"Yeah, alright," agreed Matt.

"It's a good idea but your hair is still really, really terrible Harry," Mimi said moving to walk alongside the smaller boy.

Harry stuck out his tongue at the older girl.

Together the group moved to follow Tai along the bank of the river and hopefully downstream to the ocean. Everyone that was, except for Joe.

"At a time like this I think it would be a far better plan to just find a cave and hide. We keep our eyes peeled and when a camp councillor comes by—"

"Hey Joe, everyone's leaving us!" Gomamon interrupted him.

"Wait for me!" the nervous teen cried running after the group.

Once he was sure that Joe wasn't going to wander away from the procession and get himself into trouble Gomamon hopped into the river and swam alongside his terrestrial companions occasionally making a dive to chat with some of his fish friends.

"These trees are beautiful," said Sora.

"Yeah, they're really different," Izzy agreed, "At first I thought it was just because they were sub-tropical but I know I've never seen anything like them before anywhere."

"Whatever they are, they're aggravating my hay fever," Joe said with a sniff.

"Hey Joe, is there anything you don't complain about!" snapped Matt.

Gabumon giggled a bit.

"Digital Monsters, just who came up with that name any way?" asked Izzy

"Just call us digimon, we like that," Tentomon answered.

"I only ask because your composition isn't at all machine-like," Izzy said defensively.

"Oh really?" said Tentomon slyly creating the beginnings of his electrical attack between his wings.

"Hey, watch it!" Izzy protested as he felt his hair start to stand on end from the charge.

"So Patamon?" asked TK, "Can you really fly?"

"Of course," said Patamon hopping into the air and flapping his wings vigorously.

"That's so cool but you're going the wrong way," said TK as he quickly outstripped his flying digimon even with his short legs.

"I can fly faster than that!" Piyomon declared.

"Wouldn't it be faster to walk?" suggested Sora as she passed then and with a sigh the two digimon landed and ran back to their partners looking a bit put out.

"It's alright, you guys just need practice," Harry said encouragingly, "I used to not be able to run very far at all, but I had to practice running every day and I got loads better."

"Hey Harry, would you teach me English?" asked TK, "It sounds so different, plus it's cool! Like talking in a secret code!"

"Er—I can try, if you help me learn more Japanese," suggested Harry.

Patamon relayed the bargain to his partner.

"Sure!" TK agreed excitedly.

"When I get back home this is gonna make one hell of a story," Tai said looking over his shoulder at the group of kids trailing behind him and Agumon like bizarre ducklings.

"Yep," Agumon agreed.

"But…of course, not a single soul will ever believe me."

"They won't believe any of us but we'll all know what really happened," said the blond with a laconic shrug.

"That Kuwagamon back there," Izzy started again, apparently running through the day's events in his mind and analyzing them, "He certainly was large…"

"And he's not the only one," Tentomon warned, "This entire Island is populated by digimon and many of them have been around long enough to digivolve to their higher levels."

"So it is an Island," Izzy said, "When Tai mentioned the ocean I did wonder,"

Gabumon sniffed and sighed happily.

"Ah, there's nothing like the ocean," he said with a toothy smile.

"Yay! Everybody in the water!" called Gomamon excitedly.

"Let's build a giant sand castle," suggested TK.

"Oh, my bathing suit is back at camp!" moaned Mimi disappointedly, "I want to go swimming, maybe get a nice tan…"

"You would think we were all on vacation," huffed Sora shaking her head in annoyance.

"Hey, pipe down everyone and listen," Matt ordered.

The group did as he asked and they heard a distant ringing noise.

"Is that…a phone?" asked Tai.

"Unless we're all hearing things," Sora confirmed.

"Well what are we all waiting for? Let's go!" said Tai taking off at a run.

The rest of the group followed him and sure enough as they rounded the bend and the forest faded into a pristine white beach they spotted five telephone booths looking completely out of place in the middle of the sand with no other structures around.

"I told you!" Joe all but screamed, "All we needed was a phone, we're saved!"

Tai was the first one to reach the phone booths but just as he opened the door and reached out a hand to grab the receiver the phone stopped ringing.

"Why'd it stop ringing Tai?" asked Agumon.

"Wrong number?" Tai suggested sounding uncertain.

"Well that's bizarre," Sora commented.

"My theory is aliens, they've obviously set these phone booths out as a trap," said Izzy.

"If we can find a place that delivers let's order pizza!" Matt declared.

"Whatever you get no anchovies for me," said Mimi.

"The question is, what are these doing here at the beach?" Sora said.

"They're here so that people can call their parents for a ride home," Joe insisted, his fists clenched with determination.

Harry shook his head at Joe.

"Harry is probably right, Joe," Izzy said, "There is absolutely no reason, for these things to be here unless it's an alien plot."

This time Harry shook his head at Izzy and rolled his eyes for emphasis.

"I have a question," said Gomamon, "What exactly is a parents?"

Joe leveled his digimon with an incredulous look.

"That's it, I'm out of here," the older boy declared marching into the second phone booth.

"Your parents are the people that take care of you while you're still too young and small to take care of yourself, Gomamon," Harry answered patting the white and purple digimon on the head to ease some of the sting of Joe's insensitivity.

"Don't you guys have Moms and Dads?" asked Mimi

"I don't think so," Palmon answered.

"So then where do digimon come from?" asked TK

"We hatch from digieggs," Patamon answered.

"But who took care of you after you hatched?" Sora asked Piyomon.

"I don't remember, it was a long time ago," the bird-type digimon answered after a long moment.

"Hey does anyone have spare change?" asked Tai, interrupting.

"Why?" asked Sora.

"Well obviously I'm gonna make a phone call and try to get us some help," said Tai.

"Ah, here, use my phone card, the aliens can bill me," Izzy said handing over the green and white bit of plastic.

"Thanks," Tai said.

"Maybe there's a quarter in one of the phone slots!" TK said excitedly.

"I'm calling Daddy!" Mimi declared picking a phone booth.

"I'm going to connect to the internet," Izzy said.

"I'm calling collect," Matt said.

"Dibs on booth four!" called Sora happily.

The digimon all followed their partners to the telephones even though it was clear from their expressions that they had no idea what the phones were for precisely.

Harry, on the other hand, toed off his shoes and socks, rolled up the ragged hems of his jeans and padded through the flour-soft white sand to stand with his feet in the ocean, the waves lapping at his calves and ankles. Senamon followed him, all but slithering across the sand.

"I've never been to the ocean before," Harry confided to his digimon, "It sure is big."

"It sure is, but Harry, don't you want to call your parents, like the others?" asked Senamon curiously.

Harry looked down at the digimon with a sad smile.

"I don't really have any parents," he said, "Mine, died in a car accident when I was still very small, so I don't even remember what they looked like. As for calling someone, if I called my aunt and uncle they would probably just leave me here."

"They don't sound like very nice people," growled Senamon.

"They're not nice people," Harry shrugged, "Not to me anyway. It's okay though Senamon, because honestly, I'd rather stay here with you."

Senamon smiled butting his head up against Harry's knee.

"I'm glad."

A few minutes later Izzy wandered over to join them with Tentomon buzzing in his wake. Harry tilted his head at the other boy questioningly.

"Any luck?" he asked.

Tentomon and Senamon didn't even have to translate the question.

"No," Izzy answered with a disgusted shake of his head plopping into the sand next to Harry's shoes, "I'm telling you, Harry, it's a twisted alien plot! I couldn't even rig the phone for a dial-up internet connection."

"What about the others, did they manage to get a hold of someone?"

"No one was any more successful than Izzy, here," answered Tentomon.

"It looks like Joe is trying every number he knows, he's really torn up about this whole thing and doesn't seem to be able to accept that we really might be on our own out here," Izzy said.

Looking back at the phone booths Harry could just make out Joe's blue hair and manic dialling, Gomamon had even abandoned him to go play in the ocean. The others were watching him with mild interest, sitting on a sandy hillock a bit further up the beach.

"We should probably go back to the others and figure out what our next plan is going to be," the redhead added.

Harry sighed but nodded and walked out of the water scooping up his shoes as he went. The sand stuck to his wet feet and Harry wrinkled his nose at the sensation.

"Hey guys," Tai said when they got within hearing range of the rest of the group, "Did you see any driftwood or anything we can use to start that signal fire Harry was talking about earlier?"

"Nothing like that, I'm afraid," Izzy said shaking his head, "This beach has to be one of the cleanest I've ever seen."

"Alright, then, we should probably get back to the forest and start picking up fallen branches or something," the older boy said getting to his feet.

"Wait, just because we can't call out doesn't mean that other people can't call in," Matt pointed out, "And the phone was ringing before. I think we should stay here for a while and see if anyone calls. Besides, everyone could use a rest."

Matt had a good point. Mimi, Sora and TK were sprawled out in the sand and looked pretty exhausted. Harry too was getting tired but more than that he was hungry, his stomach gave a familiar empty twinge and Harry sighed. So much for his regular meals, he missed camp already.

"I'm getting pretty hungry too," said Izzy, voicing Harry's thoughts.

"You know why, cause we haven't eaten anything all day!" said Tai.

He was right too. The blizzard had hit camp just before breakfast so none of them had had a chance to eat anything beforehand. Harry shook his head marvelling that they had only been wandering around this strange island for half a day, it seemed like so much longer.

"Okay, break time!" the goggle headed boy declared.

"Does anyone have anything to eat?" asked Sora, "I think all I have is…" she paused as her hand encountered the little device she had clipped to her belt, "…that gadget that fell out of the sky before."

"I forgot all about those weird gizmos," Tai said reaching under the hem of his shirt to retrieve his.

"If anyone has a pink one I'll trade," Mimi said glancing at hers.

"What are they anyway?" asked TK.

"We wouldn't have them if they weren't important," Matt said confidently.

"If I could take mine apart…" Izzy mused his eyes getting that faraway look they had when his mind was contemplating connections and servers and other techno things.

Then his stomach burbled loudly interrupting his train of thought and he blushed. Harry chuckled a bit at his expression.

"That is," Izzy amended, "After I get something to eat, I'm really famished."

"Well, the only thing I've got is my emergency supplies," Sora said reaching into her pink belt-pouch, "It's got a first aid kit, some bandages and some antibiotics but that's about it."

"I have my trusty laptop computer, and a digital camera, oh, and a small cellphone too. Of course none of them has worked since we got here," said Izzy with a put upon sigh.

"I can't believe you brought all that computer stuff to summer camp," Tai said amused.

"Well what do you have?" Izzy countered.

"Uh, well, there's my mini-telescope," Tai looked over at Matt and Harry, "What about you guys?"

Harry shook his head no.

"Sorry," Matt shrugged, his hands in his pockets, "I don't have anything to eat either."

"Hey, look what I've got!" said TK swinging his backpack down and revealing a veritable hoard of junk food.

"Where did you get that?" asked Matt.

"I bought it at the rest stop with some of the money Mom gave me."

"Ooh, look at all those goodies! Why don't you be a good little boy and share some of that food with dear, sweet Mimi."

"Aw, you don't have to be so nice Mimi, I happy to share, you're the best!" TK said with a wide grin, "Isn't she cute?" he asked his brother cheekily.

"Forget it," Matt huffed turning his back on his little brother.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse," Tai moaned.

"I'd settle for a small cow," Izzy said.

"Mimi, what have you got in that big bag? Hairbrushes and makeup?" teased Sora.

"Well, let's see, there's a compass, cooking fuel, a flashlight, one of those knives with all the things, and some other stuff," Mimi said rooting through her bag.

The others gaped at her incredulously.

"Why didn't you tell us you had a compass before when we needed one?" Matt demanded.

"I thought it'd be kind of fun to see how far we could get without one, besides I checked and it's broken, I must have damaged it one of those times we fell," she shrugged.

"So much for finding our way out of here," sighed Tai.

"We could use the cooking fuel to start that signal fire," Matt suggested.

"We still don't have any wood," Tai pointed out.

"I vote we barbecue some telephone," said Sora, annoyed.

Tai glanced back over his shoulder and snorted in amusement, shaking his head, "Check out the genius, he's trying to call the telephone repair company because the telephones don't work! Problem is – Look! Joe's got the emergency food!"

"No way!"

"Joe! Hey Joe! You've got all the food!" Tai called.

"Don't you know it's rude to interrupt someone when they're on the phone?" snapped Joe turning to face them.

"But that bag!" said Izzy.

"Oh, this? I just brought it to give to Mimi. Today was her day to carry the bag," said Joe finally leaving the phone booth to stomp over to where Mimi was sitting with Palmon.

"I think he likes you," giggled the plant type digimon.

"No way," Mimi protested.

"Mimi, you have got to stop thinking of yourself and do something for somebody else for a change! Take a little responsibility!" Joe lectured.

"But that bag's too heavy for me," said Mimi.

"Listen, you never hear me complaining—"

Harry turned his snort of laughter into a cough and Izzy whacked him a few times on the back solicitously.

"Guys, guys," Tai interrupted the bickering older kids, "The important thing is we've got some food to eat, now let's sit down and have some lunch!"

"Mmhmm," agreed Sora nodding her head enthusiastically.

They all gathered around sitting in a circle in the sand around the food.

"Alright," Joe said with a nod, "Let's figure this out, we have sixty five meal replacement bars here, and there're eight of us. Three meals for three days for the eight of us would be…"

"Seventy two meals," Izzy answered.

"Right, and if we add in TK's stuff that gives us, uh…"

"Just enough food for three days," Izzy finished.

"Right," Joe agreed with a nod.

"We could ration it out to two meals a day, make it last longer since we don't know how long we're going to be stuck here for or if we'll be able to find anything else edible," Harry said.

Senamon translated for the non-English-speakers.

"But guys, even if we did that if you count the digimon we only really have enough food for today and maybe tomorrow morning," Sora pointed out worriedly.

"Oh…right…" sighed Joe.

"Not a problem!" said Gabumon, "We digimon hunt and forage for ourselves."

"You do?" said Matt curiously.

"Yes, no need to include us in your calculations," Tentomon agreed.

"Are you sure Piyomon?" asked Sora.

"Of course, absolutely, we can do alright on our own," she said with a nod for her partner.

"Great, now that that's settled," said Joe with a smile, "Let's go ahead and divide the food we have between the eight people here."

"This is great!" said Tai munching on one of the bars and handing another to Agumon, "I could eat a dozen of these."

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Joe demanded.

"You know Joe, it's a good thing we never hear you complaining," said Tai, deadpan.

"You people make me crazy!"

"It's already done Joe, there's no sense wasting time whining about it," sighed Matt shooting Tai an annoyed glare.

"Tai can just go hungry, cause that counts as two of his meals, no big," Sora said.

"Hey!"

Then Piyomon stood up and turned towards the water, her eyes narrowed nearly to slits.

"What's up?" asked Sora.

"Trouble," chirped Piyomon in response.

There was an ominous rumbling noise and geysers of water began to burst up out of the sand destroying the telephone booths.

"Run for it!" cried TK.

Everybody did getting to their feet and racing away from the water leaving their belongings sitting in the sand in their haste. When they reached the cliffs at the far side of the beach they turned.

"What's that?" Tai demanded pointing out the hill that was suddenly bulging up out of the sand in between the carcasses of the ruined telephone booths.

The sand slithered down the protrusion in the beach with a soft hissing noise revealing the hill to actually be a giant spiky shell, a bit like a conch only grey and far larger and sporting a whirling top, like a drill bit.

"It's Shellmon!" Tentomon cried.

"What's a Shellmon?" Izzy demanded fearfully.

He was right to be afraid if you asked Harry. Out of that giant spinning shell emerged a pink digimon with a dinosaur's head crowned with a mop of seaweed green hair, and long fingers with what looked to be suction cups at the tips. It was also at least fifteen feet tall and it was roaring at them angrily.

"Everybody!" called Joe from where he was scaling the cliff face, "Up here, this way!"

Shellmon gave another rumbling roar and shot a geyser of water straight out of the top of his head and used it to blast Joe off the cliff.

"Joe!" came Gomamon's distressed cry.

Shellmon turned his attention to the smaller seal-type digimon, blasting him with his water canon just like Joe.

Matt and Tai both moved and broke Joe's fall so he wouldn't hurt himself.

"Digimon attack!" cried Agumon leading the charge on Shellmon as the digimon once again got between the danger and their human partners.

"Pepper Breath!" he shouted, catching Shellmon full in the face with a fireball.

Gabumon, Tentomon and Piyomon came up alongside him and tried to attack as well. The key word being tried.

Gabumon's Blue Blaster, was barely more than a puff of blue smoke, Piyomon couldn't even get her Spiral Twister to form before she was hanging limply in the air, the automatic beating of her wings the only thing keeping her up. Tentomon had more success a spark forming between his wings but it was not anywhere near powerful enough to deliver a bolt of electricity.

"It's like they've lost their powers," said Matt worriedly.

Shellmon blasted them all with his geyser throwing them off their feet. Agumon sprung right back up but the others lay in the sand too exhausted to move. Sora, Matt, and Izzy knelt next to their fallen companions checking to make sure they weren't seriously injured. Meanwhile, Patamon, Senamon and Palmon had used the distraction the others had provided to get within attacking range.

"Boom Bubble!" cried Patamon from above, but his attack fizzled out before it could reach Shellmon and he was swatted out of the air by one of the green tentacles that made up Shellmon's hair.

"Patamon!" shouted TK running over to where his friend had fallen.

"Palmon, get out of there!" shrieked Mimi.

It turned out that Mimi was right to be so worried, Palmon, just like the others, attempted to use her Poison Ivy attack only to find herself looking at her hands in shock as nothing happened.

"Razor Claw!" Senamon shouted slashing at Shellmon's fleshy pink belly.

This at least had some effect, the others could see that Senamon had scratched Shellmon but it was only a scratch, whereas his attack on Kuwagamon had torn three rents in the beetle's red armour.

Shellmon swatted both Palmon and Senamon away with an annoyed roar.

"Pepper Breath!"

Yet again, Agumon was the only one whose attack packed any punch.

"What's going on?" Izzy demanded, as Harry and Mimi retrieved their digimon friends.

"We're just too hungry," Tentomon groaned.

"Gabumon," Matt said softly cradling the blue digimon's head in his lap.

"I don't have any strength," his digimon informed him weakly.

"That's it!" Sora exclaimed, "Agumon is the only one who had anything to eat!"

"That explains it," agreed Izzy.

"Then the other digimon don't have enough strength left to fight," Matt said.

"Agumon, looks like it's just us!" Tai called out to his digimon.

"Alright, then give me a diversion!" Agumon called back.

Tai began running across the sand shouting.

"Hey, Shellmon, ugly! Down here! Over here!"

"Tai don't!" Sora yelled after him.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," Matt muttered grimly.

As a distraction, Tai worked beautifully. Shellmon turned his attention on him and Agumon crept up in his blind spot and hit him with another fireball, right in the face at close range.

Shellmon groaned in pain and Tai picked up a long piece of broken metal from one of the smashed up telephone booths and began using it to whack Shellmon in the sensitive looking flesh that joined the fleshy part of the digimon to his hard shell.

"Look out, Tai!" cried Matt.

Shellmon wrapped Tai up in one of his green tentacles lifting him clear into the air.

"Hang on Tai!" shouted Agumon.

Agumon made as if to charge Shellmon, but Shellmon gave a low roar and pinned the much smaller Agumon to the beach with one massive hand.

"Watch out!" yelled Tai as Shellmon turned his water canon on the fallen digimon and their human friends blasting them even further down the beach.

Harry landed sprawled half on top of Senamon's lithe body and pulled himself up to crouch protectively over his unconscious digimon. Spitting the sand from his mouth he looked up through the dripping curtain of his hair watching with growing dread as Tai squirmed futilely against the crushing grip that Shellmon had around his middle.

"He's gonna get everyone and there's nothing I can do!" cried Tai before he screamed in pain as Shellmon tightened his hold straining his ribs.

"No! Tai!" shouted Agumon desperately.

On Tai's belt his device began to glow and beep urgently.

"Digivolve!" cried Agumon.

Light gathered around Agumon just as it had when the digimon had digivolved to fight Kuwagamon and everybody gaped at the sight in awe.

"Agumon digivolve to—Greymon!"

As the light faded Shellmon was tossed onto his side and Tai went flying, rolling across the sand, apparently uninjured, and Greymon stood up.

"Whoa, he did it again, now he's Greymon!" Tai exclaimed.

Greymon was the same general dinosaur type shape as Agumon, and still orange although striped with blue, but he was also on par with Shellmon for sheer size and had grown a boney brown helmet complete with dangerous looking horns.

Shellmon righted himself and charged Greymon headfirst. Greymon caught the other digimon and held his ground not giving an inch as they each struggled, wrestling to make the other give way.

"Now you're getting him! Go Greymon!" Tai shouted in encouragement.

Shellmon attacked with his water geyser but Greymon countered with a jet of flame that turned the attack into a cloud of steam and in the fog of confusion got his horned head underneath Shellmon and used the leverage to toss the other digimon high into the air over the ocean.

Shellmon roared in surprised and fear its eyes wide as it found itself free falling.

"Nova Blast!" roared Greymon.

A fireball the size of a Volkswagen caught Shellmon in the middle eliciting a scream of pain from the defeated digimon as he was propelled even further out to sea, landing far from the shore with a huge splash that sent up a veritable fountain of water.

Greymon groaned suddenly, his form glowing and then shrinking as he de-digivolved back into Agumon and lay belly down in the sand.

"What? Agumon!" Tai shouted running up to the collapsed form of his digimon, "Oh, are you alright? You poor little guy. Agumon!"

"Tai?" blinked Agumon slowly, "Tai! Do you have anything to eat?"

"Anything for you, buddy, you kicked Shellmon to the curb!" Tai exclaimed.

"I vote we feed our digimon and worry about meals ourselves later," Izzy said, "All in favor?"

"Aye!"

With that ringing endorsement a feast of meal replacement bars was laid out for the digimon and they gobbled it up gratefully.

"Chew and then swallow," Harry scolded Senamon when his digimon swallowed one bar whole.

"Eat up," Sora encouraged, kneeling next to Piyomon, "There's plenty more where that came from."

"Well," said Tai surveying the damage done to the phone booths, hands on his hips, "There's no reason to stay here now."

"Who wants to break the bad news to Joe?" asked Matt, gesturing to where the taller boy had found a phone that was mostly intact among the wreckage and was now desperately trying to make it work.

"Shellmon wasn't destroyed," Izzy pointed out, "Just temporarily removed. We should pack up and leave before he decides he wants to come back for round two."

"Good idea," Matt agreed.

"In that case," Joe put in shrilly, standing up and leaving his precious telephone, "We should go back to the forest because if anyone's looking for us that's where they'll go!"

"Joe, we've had this conversation before," Sora said gently, "Even if there are people looking for us back at camp we're clearly so far from there that they might not even know where to start looking, besides all that we fell off a mountain and floated down a river to get here and getting back is a really big job."

"Plus if we go back up there we could run into Kuwagamon," Mimi added as she packed up the sparse remnants of the digimon picnic.

"Listen, aliens aside, logically speaking if there are phones here there must be people around to use them," Izzy said, "Perhaps Agumon and the other digimon are misguided in saying that there aren't other humans on this island. I think it makes good sense to try and find those people."

"That makes sense?" said Joe skeptically.

"It certainly does," Sora said.

"We could wander around for days and never find anything!" Joe burst out.

"Or we could find some real help, food, shelter, an adult to explain what's going on and where we are," Matt said.

"It's the best plan we've come up with so far," Tai agreed, "So let's get going! We're burning daylight!"

"Anywhere you want to go I'll go Tai, you just pick the direction!" Agumon said grinning widely, in much better shape after his meal.

"Then let's get out of this place!"

"And let the monsters beware!" added Matt.

"My plan is to avoid the monsters altogether, yep, that's my plan," said Joe firmly.

"Not a bad plan, all things considered," Harry said, grinning as Senamon relayed his words to Joe and then moving to walk next to Izzy.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm being made fun of?" asked Joe rhetorically.

"Lighten up Joe," said Gomamon, "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you guys that adventuring is dangerous?"

"Come on Joe, we're leaving!"

* * *

**AN:** Hey guys, welcome back and thanks for reading, here's hoping you're all enjoying the story so far! Harry and Senamon got a bit more screen time this go around and I hope you're enjoying their characterizations. You might also be interested to know that Senamon is a digimon of my own creation.

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome, so please bombard me with your curiousity in a review or two!


	4. Chapter 4: Garurumon Howls

**Keepers of the Worlds**

**Chapter Four: Garurumon Howls**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or Digimon Adventure and anything you recognize was taken directly from SSN 1 ep. 3.

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted and favourited! Hope you guys all enjoy the update!

* * *

Climbing the bluff back up to the forest level was a bit of a production but after a number of arguments the group agreed that with it being late afternoon already it was better to be under the cover of the trees when night fell, so climb they did.

Surprisingly enough, Joe proved to be even more adept at mountain climbing then even the athletic Tai.

"Hey Joe," panted Mimi once they were all safely up and over the edge.

"Yeah?"

"How did you get to be so good at climbing?" she asked.

"Oh, that, well, with my allergies I didn't like spending my time on outdoor sports but my Mom wanted me to be well-rounded and not focus so much of my time and energy on school. So I spent a lot of time at the local recreation centre, climbing the rock walls and swimming in the indoor pool," Joe explained.

"You know Joe, that's actually pretty cool," said Sora with a smile.

Joe gave her an odd look.

"It's just rock climbing," he said with a shrug.

"You want to see something cool, come check out this view!" said Tai, who was standing at the highest ledge of the bluff with Agumon at his side peering out at the landscape below.

Obligingly the kids hauled themselves to their feet and looked.

"Wow!" sighed Mimi girlishly.

"Look at how far we've come," said Izzy, "If we started up over there, that's the river and then we came all this way along the beach, all in just one afternoon, prodigious!"

Joe's jaw all but dislocated as he traced their route with wide eyes.

"We walked all that way?" gasped TK.

"Looks like," nodded Matt, impressed despite himself.

"Now I'm really glad we decided not to go back the way we came," Sora said, "We must have seen a good quarter of the island already."

They all just stood and gaped for a moment, taking it all in.

"Hey Agumon," Tai said, suddenly breaking the silence that had descended.

"What's up Tai?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I like it when you're Greymon, and you've got a lot more firepower so why not just stay that way?" he asked.

"I can't," said Agumon, "It's like I said before about digivolving, it takes a lot of energy. Even when I can share energy with you, Tai, I just still don't have enough experience and power of my own to hold myself in that shape."

"So, what? The more times you do it the easier it gets? Like building up a muscle and making it stronger by doing a certain exercise?"

"I don't know for sure but I think that you're right, the more times I digivolve into Greymon the longer I should be able to hold it and the stronger I'll be even in this form," Agumon agreed with a grin.

"That is pretty awesome," Tai agreed returning the grin with one of his own.

"What about the others?" asked Izzy, "Could any of them digivolve into the higher levels? Is there some sort of catalyst?"

"I don't know too much about it, this is only the third time I've digivolved after all and the other two times were mostly because of my natural ability. Tai just gave me that extra jolt I needed to become Agumon."

"Interesting," Izzy said.

"Come on guys, we've probably only got a couple of hours of daylight left, we should get going if we want to try and find a safe place to bunk down for the night," Sora said turning towards the forest.

Just then a digimon that looked like a white triceratops the size of a large cube van wearing gunmetal grey plate armour burst through the small boulder to their left roaring and stomping threateningly.

"Who's that digimon?" Izzy asked.

"That's a Monochromon, don't worry about him he's a pretty laid back digimon," Tentomon answered.

"He doesn't look particularly laid back to me, Tentomon," Harry said taking a step closer to Senamon as the Monochromon roared again.

"I agree with Harry, Tentomon, are you sure it's safe?" said Mimi fearfully.

"Well, now that I'm thinking about it, it is wise to be cautious with a Monochromon as they do tend to get a bit miffed when they're hungry," Tentomon said nervously.

"Then he must be starving, cause he looks really mad!" said Tai.

"And I think he wants to eat us!" Mimi shrieked.

"Let's get out of here!" said Sora.

"Don't run!" Harry said quickly, "Senamon, tell them! When you run they have to chase you, it hasn't moved to attack us yet so we should just slowly make our way over to the forest."

"Harry's right," Izzy agreed, "If a Monochromon is anything like the rhinoceros it resembles, running is probably the last thing we should do."

"Alright then, moving slowly let's get over to that side and into the trees," Tai instructed.

"Oh, I don't like this at all!" moaned Mimi.

"Just keep moving," Joe instructed putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her towards the big rock on the other side of the Monochromon.

They moved across the clearing carefully, inching in slow deliberate movements. The Monochromon roared at them, snorting and stomping threateningly but didn't stop them or get any closer. They had almost made it when a second Monochromon roared behind them stomping out of the bushes and into the clearing.

"Another one!" cried Joe, dismayed.

"We're caught between a rock and two sets of teeth!" Matt exclaimed grimly.

"What do we do now?" asked Sora.

"Get behind here!" ordered Piyomon darting behind the large boulder.

The group of kids and their digimon were quick to follow her advice. Just in the nick of time too, because the two Monochromon charged each other and began fighting furiously crushing smaller rocks and trampling plants without any regard whatsoever.

"Something must have set those Monochromon off," said Tai poking his head up above the boulder to get a better look at the fight.

"Careful Tai, you don't want them turning their attention on you!" said Agumon tugging his partner back down with a claw hooked into his belt.

"They are fighting over territory," Tentomon explained as he observed the two fighting digimon, "That one there is a newly digivolved Monochromon, they're fighting to see who gets to stay in this area."

"They can have their territory, I'm getting out of here!" said Palmon turning on what passed for her heels and running deeper into the forest.

"Don't leave without me!" cried Mimi close behind her digimon.

The other kids turned tail and ran, following behind their friends as, by the sounds of it, the battle between the two Monochromon became even more intense.

TK stumbled and fell and Harry tripped over TK and went sprawling into the middle of the path.

"TK!" cried Matt and Patamon at the same time kneeling next to the smaller boy.

"Better hurry up you guys!" Tai called back to them.

"'Kay, we're coming!" TK called back, "You alright Harry?"

"Brilliant," Harry said, a bit sarcastically, as he brushed dirt off his skinned knees quickly and resumed running.

"Don't worry TK, he's alright," said Senamon before bounding after his partner.

The whole group kept running until the sounds of the fighting Monochromon could no longer be heard and then they slowed to a walk. About the time they all had their breath back they spotted the first sign.

"What's that?" asked Sora pointing out the splash of red and white in the trees.

"It's a road sign," said Izzy as they moved closer to it.

It was a road-ends-here sign with a blue and white arrow attached to the bottom pointing backward along the path they were traveling.

"Look there's another one!" said Tai.

This sign was a speed limit sign that read 60 Km/Km.

"Well that's helpful," snorted Matt with an eye roll.

"Hey look!" said TK, "A caution cone!"

"What is this, the forest of irrelevant road signs?" asked Tai shaking his head.

"I could care less," moaned Mimi leaning against the trunk of a large tree, "I never walk this much unless I'm at a mall, and as you can see we're nowhere near one!"

"Mimi, stop whining," said Tai walking past her.

"No! My feet hurt!" she whined.

"Maybe you'd feel better if you took off your boots and socks Mimi," suggested Agumon sympathetically, "It's much more practical I think."

"I'm not doing that and dirtying my bare feet!"

"I love the feel of dirt under my feet, especially between my toes!" said Palmon wiggling the root-like appendages that passed for toes to illustrate.

"You have to remember, Palmon, that you're a plant-type digimon and probably like dirt better than the average person and way, way more than our darling Mimi here," said Harry as he passed by.

"He's right, dirt is just gross!" squealed Mimi.

"At a time like this the only thing to do is keep moving forward," Joe instructed as he caught up to them Matt and TK bringing up the rear not far behind them.

"Will you carry me Joe?" begged Mimi with a pleading pout falling into step with the taller boy.

"Absolutely not, I'm already carrying your bag!" Joe protested.

"Just for a little while?" she wheedled.

"No!"

"It appears we may be losing our light source," Izzy called back from near the front of the line pointing to the fat orange sun balancing on the horizon.

"What a weird sunset," Sora commented surveying it with her hands on her hips.

"This whole island is weird," said Izzy, "And who knows what will come out at night."

"Wait a minute!" cried Tentomon suddenly, "I detect water! Wait here while I check it out."

As Tentomon flew up to perch on the branch of a very tall tree Mimi took the opportunity to sit down in the shade of a tree and take a rest.

"How does Tentomon know there's water Senamon?" Harry asked his digimon curiously.

"Beats me," shrugged Senamon, "The Tentomon just seem to know things."

"And they're all terrible gossips," added Piyomon.

"So there's more than one Tentomon?" asked Izzy.

"Yep, there are other's like us too," said Piyomon.

"I stayed with a whole village full of Koromon for a little bit while I was waiting for Tai," added Agumon.

"Fascinating, so not only is Agumon and Piyomon your name but they're also the name of your whole species, at least until you digivolve," summarized Izzy.

"Are you all the same?" asked Matt.

"Not at all," said Gabumon shaking his head, "We all have similar personality traits and look the same but some of us have more of one trait than another or quirks that aren't common among our kind."

"Tsunomon could have digivolved into an Elecmon or a Gaomon, but because he's the way he is he digivolved into a Gabumon and Koromon could have been a Gabumon too but he was more suited to being an Agumon so that's what he is," Senamon added.

"That's very confusing," Harry said shaking his head.

"It's like a soccer team," Tai mused, "Your goalie could be a forward because he's a good soccer player but he's more suited to defense than offence."

Sora rolled her eyes.

"Not everything comes back to soccer Tai."

"Aha!" shouted Tentomon suddenly, catching their attention as he flew down from the tree, "As usual I am right, it's a lake with fresh clean water and plenty of tasty fish, and it's not too far from here. It's the perfect campsite!"

"Great!" exclaimed Tai, "Let's get going!"

"Maybe I can finally soak my poor aching feet," said Mimi brightly standing up.

"Yay, let's go swimming!" cried Gomamon excitedly.

He began bounding in the direction Tentomon indicated only to have his tail grabbed by Joe preventing him from going any further.

"Wait Gomamon, we have to all go together and make sure it's safe first!" Joe said.

Gomamon pouted but stayed with the group as they followed Tentomon off the beaten path and through the trees.

"Everybody's hungry, we've got to find some food!" Tai exclaimed.

"That is a good plan, I like that plan a lot," agreed Joe.

"Tentomon, you're sure this lake has fish?"

"I'm positive!" Tentomon said.

They emerged out of the trees and, just as Tentomon promised, there was a crystal clear lake turned pink in the encroaching sunset.

"It should be safe to rest here tonight," said Piyomon happily.

"This is great," Sora agreed, "I love camping under the stars!"

"If I won't walk in dirt what on Earth makes you think I'll sleep in it?" Mimi demanded of Tai, arms crossed and one eyebrow arched.

"Mimi, do you see a hotel anywhere around here?" Tai shot back, unfazed.

There was a soft crackling sound and Mimi gasped looking beyond Tai's head. Tai turned to see what she was goggling.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It looks like a trolley car," said TK his blue eyes round.

With another crackle of electricity, on without any apparent source, the trolley car sitting on the small rocky island connected by a strip of land to shore lit up with headlights and interior lights. Chasing away the lengthening shadows and giving the kids and digimon a better look at their surroundings.

"That's odd. The lights just…came on," observed Izzy.

"Well maybe there are some real people in there," suggested Sora hopefully.

"Let's check it out!" said Tai setting off at a run, Agumon hot on his heels.

"That kid is far too eager," said Harry to Senamon tiredly before following the others as everyone took off after the goggle-headed boy.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly considering the speed with which she had fled the Monochromon, Mimi quickly pulled into the lead.

"Maybe it can take us back home! In air-conditioned comfort!" she squealed.

"Mimi, wait up!" Tai called.

"It might not be safe, wait for us!" Joe said.

The doors to the trolley car hissed open automatically as Tai approached and ran up the front set of steps. Mimi was already there inside the vehicle looking brighter than she had since she'd first spotted the snow that morning as she bounced on one of the green bench-like seats.

"These cushions are so comfy!" she squealed excitedly.

"Bummer, it's empty," Tai said.

"Totally empty," Sora added.

"No trolley car is this clean," Izzy said staring at the floor of the trolley.

"But it's never been used I'll bet so why wouldn't it be clean," shrugged Harry hovering over the redhead's shoulder.

Tentomon translated for his partner.

"I suppose you might be right," Izzy conceded moving into the vehicle proper.

Tentomon settled on the seat next to Mimi while Sora and Piyomon sprawled out in the seat opposite them.

"Something's not right," Tai said, "You guys remember those weird phone booths from before, something just as freaky could happen here."

"Like this thing suddenly moving on its own with no tracks or obvious power source," suggested Joe from where he was examining the driver's seat and controls.

"Possibly, but then again maybe that's how we're going to get home."

"So we've got nothing to lose by staying here," said Sora with an easy smile.

"Can we eat now?" moaned Tentomon.

"That's right, I forgot," said Tai.

"I saw a whole bunch of berries and fruit trees, we digimon can gather up the stuff that's safe to eat," said Piyomon.

"I can make a fishing pole and line, no problem, if you'd just lend me your knife Mimi," said Izzy.

"I have fishing line in here too, Izzy, if you want it," Mimi said.

"Okay, you two get started on that," Tai instructed with a nod, "Matt if you can build a fire pit Joe and I can get some wood to cook the fish Izzy catches."

"I can help you fish Izzy!" said TK.

"Excellent, I'll make a pole for you too," Izzy said before leaving the trolley with Mimi.

"TK you and Harry should come with me, we'll wash and put some antiseptic on those scraped up knees, the last thing we need is one of those cuts getting infected," said Sora sternly, "Speaking of which, I forgot to ask earlier Tai but are you hurt anywhere from when Shellmon attacked you?"

"Nah," Tai said waving her off, "I might have a few bruises but nothing major, it doesn't hurt."

"Alright if you're sure," said Sora, exiting the car and herding the two younger boys down to the lakeshore.

Patamon and Senamon followed the other digimon across the bridge and into the forest to gather up the fruit and berries that would, hopefully, accompany a fish dinner.

"I'm sorry I tripped you Harry," said TK pulling a face, "It's all my fault you tripped, I can't believe I fell!"

Since none of the digimon or Mimi were around to translate, Harry just ruffled TK's hair like Tai had done to him earlier and gave the smaller boy a reassuring smile to let him know there were no hard feelings.

"How do you say sorry in English?" TK asked.

"Soh-ree," Harry said.

"Soh-ree," TK repeated carefully, "Like Soh-rah!"

Harry laughed and gave him a nod.

"Alright you two, shoes and socks off," Sora ordered ushering them into the water.

Harry did as ordered rolling his pants up as far as they would go and wishing for shorts. He winced as he aggravated the raw skin of his knees cleaning out the dirt that had stuck there. It looked like TK was better off than him but then again the younger boy hadn't fallen as far or as hard as Harry.

Sloshing out of the lake and back onto dry land, Harry watched as Izzy approached them two makeshift fishing rods in hand with a bit of meal replacement bar tied onto the end as bait.

"Where's Mimi?" asked Sora daubing a bit of antiseptic on TK's knees with a small square of gauze.

"She and Palmon are helping the other digimon gather the food," Izzy answered.

"Is that one mine?" asked TK going over to Izzy.

"Yep and I have more bait for when we actually catch something," added Izzy.

TK grabbed his fishing pole and eagerly sat down a ways away and tossed his line in. Izzy chose to sit near where Harry and Sora were.

"This might sting a bit," Sora warned Harry.

Sora was gentle but Harry still winced at the burning sensation of the antiseptic. She got both knees thoroughly clean and then slapped a Band-Aid on each.

"There you go, all set. Just try to keep them clean and dry for a day or so to be safe."

"Thank you very much, Sora," said Harry in careful Japanese.

Sora giggled, "You're very welcome Harry. I'm going to go help Tai and Joe find firewood," she said standing up and heading for the trees.

Harry rolled down his pant legs and slipped his shoes and socks back on and stood up setting a hand on Izzy's shoulder.

"Are you going to go help Senamon and the others gathering fruit and berries?" asked the redhead looking up at him with a smile.

Harry smiled back, nodding.

"Alright, good luck, I'll do my best to get you guys a main course to work with."

A sudden splosh had Izzy turning back to the lake with a scowl.

"Gomamon stop playing in the water! I can't catch any fish if you keep on warning them all away!"

Harry chuckled, giving Izzy another pat on the shoulder before heading in the direction of the forest himself.

Matt was making good progress on the fire pit and there was a stack of fruit mounting up next to it on platters of big tropical leaves. Harry waved at the older blond as he passed by and Matt shot him a quick grin in return before he was obscured by foliage.

"Harry!" called Senamon excitedly when he spotted his human partner.

"I've come to help you guys, just show me what's good," he said.

"Well, Tentomon is getting berries—"

"You can never get too many berries down the hatch!" said the beetle type digimon from the tree above them.

"Mimi and Palmon are looking for mushrooms, and the others are getting Long Fruit, Red Fruit and Blue Fruit," Senamon continued gesturing to where Piyomon was tugging on a fruit the colour of Senamon's skin and Gabumon stood ready to catch it, "I think we should go after the Yellow Fruit."

"Alright, sounds good, which tree?"

Senamon led Harry over to a tree that would need three people to get their arms all the way around its trunk. Looking up Harry saw what must have been the Yellow Fruit. It was about a foot long and as wide around as a basketball.

"Wow, that is a big fruit," Harry said amazedly, "I've seen smaller pumpkins."

"It's too heavy for me to carry but I'm afraid to just let it drop to the ground," Senamon said.

"Alright, well, if you cut the stem I can catch it and carry it down the tree under my arm, we only need two, those things are big enough to daunt even Tai and Agumon," said Harry.

"Great let's do it!"

Harry examined the tree before him, because of its size the closest branch from the ground was still much too far above Harry's head for the slight boy to reach.

"I'm gonna need a boost getting up," he said.

"We can get Agumon, he's the tallest and he was boosting Patamon earlier," suggested Senamon.

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Harry.

Harry followed Senamon a little further into the forest back to where the others were. Gabumon and Piyomon had a decent stack of Blue Fruit to show for their efforts and Patamon was perched atop Agumon's head, all but spherical with the Boom Bubble he was readying.

"Hey Agumon, would you boost me up next?" Harry asked.

"Sure thing Harry," Agumon agreed with an easy grin.

With a soft noise Patamon released his Boom Bubble and it hit the stem of what looked to Harry like an orange banana. He assumed it was the Long Fruit Senamon had mentioned earlier. The fruit fell and ended up skewered on Gabumon's horn.

"Auh!" groaned Gabumon his hands coming up to clutch at his head.

The fruit was obviously sturdier than the average banana.

"Better watch that killer breath of yours Patamon," teased Piyomon.

"Don't be mean, Piyomon, it was an accident," Harry said reprovingly.

"I'm sorry Gabumon, I didn't mean to hit you," Patamon said contritely.

"That's alright little friend, you can help Piyomon and I carry all this fruit back to the lake and Matt will get this Long Fruit off my horn."

"Come on Harry, Agumon, let's go get that yellow fruit!" said Senamon excitedly.

Exchanging bemused looks Harry and Agumon followed Senamon back to the Yellow Fruit tree and watched as the lithe digimon scrambled up the tree with ease using his talons to grip the trunk.

"Ready Agumon?" Harry asked

"Sure thing!"

Agumon bent close to the ground and Harry took a careful step onto the middle of his nose then the orange dinosaur digimon lifted himself up pushing Harry within arm's reach of the branch.

"Was that alright? I didn't hurt you?" asked Harry looking back down at Agumon from his perch in the tree.

"Not at all," snorted Agumon, "You hardly weigh more than Patamon Harry, do you ever eat?"

Harry stuck his tongue out at the digimon.

"Come on Harry!" urged Senamon.

Getting the two Yellow Fruits turned out not to be as much of a production as Harry had feared and soon enough they emerged from the forest, a fruit under each of Harry's arms, to find Sora, Tai and Matt arrayed around the completed fire pit and Joe stacking the extra firewood neatly off to one side. Mimi and Palmon were there too helping Gomamon with the purple aquatic fruits he'd fished out of the lake.

"We're all set to cook dinner now all we need is the grub," said Matt.

"Great, but how're we supposed to light the fire?" asked Sora.

"Like this!" said Agumon running up to them and spitting a fireball into the pit.

"Wow Agumon, you're the man!" praised Tai.

Agumon all but outright glowed at his partner.

"We've got more fruit!" Senamon announced.

"Holy crow, you two have been busy!" Sora exclaimed seeing the size of the Yellow Fruits Harry was setting down with the other food.

"We couldn't have done it without Agumon," Harry said, "He played a key role!"

Senamon relayed this information to Tai who engulfed his ecstatic partner in a hug. Harry and his digimon exchanged pleased looks.

"I should teach you how to high five," Harry said to Senamon with a grin.

"Hey, look, we caught a bunch a fish!" called TK as he and Izzy ran up fish in hand.

Harry was amused to note that all the fish they had caught were the same long grey type and looked nothing like any of Gomamon's colourful friends.

"Wow, great work Izzy, TK, let's eat 'em!" said Tai.

Izzy and TK had caught enough fish that each of the kids could have one, as could Gabumon, Agumon, Senamon and Piyomon. The other digimon all preferred to stick with their fruit, berries and mushrooms for one reason or another and there was certainly enough of that to go around.

"Thanks squirt," said Matt accepting a fish from his brother and skewering it on a sharpened stick.

"It's times like this I wish I had a microwave," grumbled Tai doing a strange sort of dance as he dangled his fish over the fire by the tail trying to cook the thing and not get burnt at the same time.

"Me too," said Matt, "Because you're about to lose your fingers, why don't you use a stick?"

Matt demonstrated by sticking his fish on a stick in the ground in such a way that it was close enough to the fire to cook but not get burned.

"How did you come up with that Matt?" asked Tai, watching the blond work curiously.

"Because I'm the man," Matt answered with a grin, pulling another stick out of his pocket and handing it to Tai.

Soon after that Matt had everyone's fish cooked on sticks and the children and digimon had arrayed themselves in a circle around the fire munching greedily on the gathered dinner.

"Bon appetit," Harry said handing Senamon his fish.

"Thanks Harry!"

"Mmm, this is surprisingly good!" said Tentomon from where he and Piyomon were making good headway on the bits of Yellow Fruit Senamon had cut up with his Razor Claw.

"Here you go," Matt said handing TK his fish.

"But Matt," TK said sounding uncertain all of a sudden, "Mom only lets me eat fish sticks."

"I won't tell," Matt assured him.

"And I never eat with my fingers."

"TK it's alright!" snapped Matt, a little harshly if you were to ask Harry's opinion, or TK's if the hurt look in his baby blues was anything to go by.

Luckily Tai intervened.

"Yeah, Matt's right, you're hanging with the big boys now!" he winked at TK.

"'Kay," agreed TK with a smile, digging into his fish with ravenous appetite.

"Besides," Harry said, "How much closer to fish sticks can you possibly get?"

When Patamon translated that statement it earned chuckles and giggles all around diffusing some of the tension in the air.

It didn't take long for everyone to finish off their meals and throw their rinds and fish bones into the fire. Sora, Mimi, and Joe wrapped up fruit that they didn't eat in some of the big leaves and packed them into Joe's bag along with the rest of the meal replacement bars.

"Look Patamon's tired," said TK fondly as his digimon yawned widely and his eyes drooped shut.

Next to them Palmon had fallen asleep leaning against Gomamon. Senamon was blinking his eyes slowly, his head resting on Harry's knee, and looked ready to follow his friends off to dreamland.

"I'm getting really tired myself," yawned Tai.

"Wait a second, don't fall asleep yet," said Izzy, "We should each take turns standing guard."

"Alright," agreed Joe with an easy nod, "Who wants to go first?"

"How about if each of us stands guard for about two hours?" suggested Tai.

"Not TK!" said Matt immediately getting to his feet.

"Aw c'mon Matt I wanna help too!"

"No!" Matt snapped, "You're too young and you need your rest!"

"I'm getting cold. I need a warm blanket to help me sleep," Mimi interrupted.

"Hey Gabumon," Tai said smirking, "Better sleep with one eye open or Mimi might sneak up on you and steal your fur right off your body."

He tugged at Gabumon's pelt to illustrate and Gabumon shied away.

"Stop it Tai, that's not funny!"

Tai immediately released the furry blue digimon but Matt got right up into his face and shoved Tai even further away.

"Quit it!"

"Hey, what crawled up your ass and died?" Tai demanded angrily.

"Tai!" snapped Sora.

"Gabumon told you to stop, so knock it off!"

"You can't tell me what to do!"

All of a sudden the two boys had each other by the front of their shirts and looked ready to start pounding on each other.

"Guys stop!" cried TK distressed, "Don't fight."

With that Tai and Matt released each other and turned their backs on the other, arms crossed defiantly and identical scowls on their lips.

"You'd both make great guards," said Joe stepping between them, "Who goes first?"

"I will!" snapped Tai.

"I'm next!" snapped Matt.

"How about if Izzy and Harry take over after that and then I finish up the night?" suggested Joe.

"That's fine with me," Izzy agreed, "Harry?"

Harry shot him a tired smile and a thumbs up.

"Great," said Sora, "Now that that's settled let's get back to the trolley and get some sleep."

Together the kids and their digimon dragged their exhausted bodies back across the land bridge over to the small island with the trolley car.

Gomamon, Piyomon, Tentomon and Palmon all curled up together in a nest of leaves in the centre of the trolley. Mimi had claimed the bench on the far side of the digimon and Sora was already sprawled out on the bench opposite her. Joe and Matt and chosen benches on the opposite ends of the room from each other and were settling in. Gabumon had chosen to sleep with his partner but Joe's legs were far too long to fit anyone else on his bench. TK and Patamon were curled up together on the bench next to Sora's and Harry and Senamon made themselves comfy across from Joe.

"Mind if I join you guys?" asked Izzy, "That way we won't disturb anyone else when Matt wakes us up for our turn on watch."

Harry gave the redhead a smile and a nod.

"I can't sleep with all of you here," Mimi complained taking off her hat and glancing around the trolley car uncomfortably.

"Quit complaining. So it's not perfect, just be glad we have a place to sleep," said Sora sternly.

"That's right Mimi," shot Izzy.

Izzy and Harry arranged themselves so that their heads were in the space created by the other person's neck and like that the two boys were short enough that their feet didn't hang off the ends of the bench. Senamon stretched himself out next to Harry and pillowed his head on his human partner's chest.

"Goodnight," called Joe.

"Sleep tight," added Sora.

"Don't let the Monochromon bite!" TK finished cheerily.

Harry's eyes slid shut and he tried not to be freaked out as the trolley car turned off its own lights without any input from them, concentrating on the familiar rhythm of Izzy's breathing against the back of his neck. The redheaded computer genius had already drifted right off to sleep as if he did stuff this weird every night.

Harry was just starting to fall asleep when he heard Matt tell Gabumon to go and sleep with his little brother. A soft smile twitched Harry's lips as the black haired boy finally fell into dreamland.

What seemed like only moments later Harry was jolted out of his sleep when he, Izzy, Joe and Senamon were all dumped out of their beds and into a tangle of limbs on the trolley floor. Beneath their feet the island seemed to be shaking and rumbling.

Harry thought he heard Tai and Agumon yelling outside.

"What's going on?" he demanded of no one in particular.

"Is everyone alright?" asked TK.

"It's an earthquake!" screamed Mimi pressing herself into the floor next to Palmon her hands covering her head.

All of a sudden they heard a loud menacing snarl.

"What's that horrible sound?" asked Sora.

"The trolley's moving and I don't think it's to take us home!" Joe exclaimed extricating himself from the inadvertent dog pile.

"It's taking up towards that sea dragon!" cried Izzy pointing out the front window to where a twenty foot tall sea monster had risen from the lake and was snarling in their general direction.

"Oh no!" cried Tentomon, "It's Seadramon!"

"We have to help Tai and Agumon!" Sora said.

They all clambered out of the trolley, falling to the ground as, with a sudden jerk, Seadramon began towing their little island along behind him as he swam further out into the lake.

"We're going to be eaten for sure!" wailed Mimi.

When the shaking steadied they got to their feet and moved to join Tai and Agumon near the blackened remains of their little watch fire.

"Hold on tight!" called Agumon.

"It's like we're on a monster longboard!" Tai exclaimed.

"He's pulling us along by his tail, I don't think he even realizes we're here," said Izzy.

"Perhaps not," agreed Tentomon, "He's a bit dense. As long as he doesn't see us we should be safe."

"Don't be too sure about that," Agumon said as Seadramon turned back around to face them.

"You guys jinxed us!" cried Tentomon hopping forward a step, "Now he knows we're here!"

"What? I didn't do anything!" chorused Tai and Agumon.

With a flick of his large red tail Seadramon sent Tentomon flying.

"I guess he does know we're here!" said Izzy.

"Ack!" cried Tai, "That big red thing was his tail!"

Seadramon hissed at them furiously and with a flick of his abused tail rocked their little island sending them sprawling once again.

"Everybody stay down!" ordered Sora.

"Look out guys he's coming back!" Tai warned.

Somehow Seadramon managed to push their island forward even more and even faster.

"We're going to crash into the shore!" cried Joe.

As it turned out they didn't crash into the shore but into three very randomly placed towers with the dangling remnants of a set of overhead power lines in the middle of the lake.

"Great," Tai complained, "He left us right in the middle of the lake!"

"I don't suppose we could trick him into taking us back," said Izzy.

Seadramon once again burst forth out of the water.

"Look out everyone, he's attacking!" called Tai.

"Come on you guys, let's send him back to the fishes!" cried Agumon.

"Not a problem!" snapped Piyomon, "Spiral Twister!"

"Boom Bubble!"

Seadramon flinched a bit as the two energy attacks hit him in the face, but he seemed more annoyed and infuriated than actually injured.

"Poison Ivy!" cried Palmon, she reached and reached but her vines weren't nearly long enough to catch Seadramon.

Tentomon flew as close to the dragon type digimon as he dared and hit him solidly with a Super Shocker that barely seemed to faze him. Agumon followed it up with a Pepper Breath that was equally ineffective.

Seadramon roared at them menacingly.

"Agumon, digivolve!" ordered Tai.

"I've been trying but I just can't seem to do it this time Tai," said Agumon.

"You have to!"

"Maybe my body hasn't recovered from the last fight."

"But if you can't help us how are we supposed to stop Seadramon!"

"TK over here!" called Matt suddenly.

During all the commotion Matt and Gabumon had managed to swim almost all the way across the lake to the island.

"Matt!" cried TK rushing to the edge of the island, "Be careful or the monster will get you!"

The island rocked again and TK stumbled and fell into the water with a cry. Gomamon dove in after him and when they surfaced TK was safely on the seal type digimon's back.

"Gomamon, you go!" cheered Joe.

"Hurry up Matt!" urged Tai.

"Get out of there fast, it's Seadramon!" cried Tentomon.

"Gomamon, get TK back to the others, you can do it," Matt ordered.

"Right!"

Gomamon swam back to shore with TK but rather than following them Matt decided to pull a Tai and began jumping up and down in the water making a great racket and shouting to distract the sea dragon.

"Hey, over here!"

Seadramon turned to focus on Matt as the slim blond cut through the water like a torpedo drawing Seadramon's attention away from his brother and their friends.

"Follow me you overgrown water lizard!"

"Blue Blaster!" shouted Gabumon when Seadramon got too close to his partner.

Seadramon hissed in pain and the rest of the group on land could see that Gabumon's attack had even left a mark on the digimon's face which was better than what they had managed to accomplish.

With a flick of his tail, Seadramon flicked Gabumon out of the water and sent him flying through the air. Gabumon managed to land close to the island and swam to shore but Seadramon used the opportunity to drag a now defenceless Matt down into the water.

"No Matt!" cried TK "This is all my fault, Matt was only trying to protect me I'll never forgive myself!"

"Oh no, Matt!" Tai shouted.

Seadramon had his tail wrapped around the blond's entire upper body and seemed to be attempting to squeeze the life out of him. Matt screamed in pain and fear.

"This is not good," said Tentomon, "Seadramon may be a bubble brain but once he finds his prey he won't let go."

"We have to do something!" Harry cried frustrated.

The truth was they'd already done everything they could do and none of it was enough.

"Hang on Matt," sobbed TK, "Patamon please, help him! Hit him with a Bubble Boom!"

"Seadramon is just too big. I just don't have enough power TK, I'm sorry. Gabumon you're stronger than me, what about you?"

"You're right, Matt is in trouble and I must help!"

"Gabumon!" screamed Matt through teeth gritted from pain.

"Matt! Don't give up we'll find some way to save you!"

"Matt, hold on!" cried Gabumon.

On Matt's belt Harry could see his device begin to glow.

"Izzy look!" he said tugging on the redhead's shirt and pointing to Matt's belt.

"Never mind that!" shouted Izzy, "Look at Gabumon!"

The same light that had engulfed Agumon before he digivolved into Greymon was now surrounding Gabumon.

"He's digivolving!" Harry exclaimed with a gasp.

"Gabumon!" Matt screamed again.

"Gabumon digivolve to—Garurumon!"

The light faded from around the digivolved Gabumon to reveal a wolf the size of a mini-van stripped with blue and white fur.

Snarling menacingly Garurumon launched himself through the air straight at Seadramon snapping at the appendage that held his human partner. Matt was released immediately and turned his fall into a semi-graceful dive back into the relative safety of the water.

Seadramon roared in pain and fury as Garurumon sunk razor sharp teeth and claws into the dragon digimon's thick hide. Bucking wildly the larger digimon managed to dislodge the wolf type digimon by smacking him off into the water with his tail. Garurumon disappeared under the water for a long tense moment.

Matt managed to haul himself up onto the land and lay there panting and coughing for a minute.

"Matt are you alright?" TK demanded running up to his brother.

"Yeah, but where's Gabumon?"

Garurumon burst out of the water with a growl, just in range of Seadramon's jaws.

"Look out!" cried Tai.

The warning turned out not to be necessary as Seadramon tried to take a bite out of Garurumon and screamed in pain whereas the bite appeared to have no effect on the wolf. Garurumon swam out of range of the sea dragon's thrashing tail and began circling around, picking up speed to make another attack.

"Garurumon's fur is legendary," Tentomon informed the group, "It's stronger than steel, he's like a growling torpedo!"

"That's astonishing; it must make him nearly invincible!" Izzy exclaimed amazed.

"That's what I've heard anyway, we'll soon find out," said Tentomon.

"I really hope you're not exaggerating Tentomon," said Tai watching the battle with a grim expression.

"He could be," said Agumon.

"But I heard about it!" Tentomon protested.

Out in the water Seadramon had apparently had enough of Garurumon because with a roar a huge beam of icy blue energy shot out of his mouth freezing the water and Garurumon near instantly.

"Oh no, Seadramon's using his lethal ice blast!"

Garurumon shrugged off his icy coating as if it was nothing and retaliated.

"Howling Blaster!" he snarled, a thick stream of slightly darker blue energy overpowering Seadramon's attack and ploughing through the sea dragon.

Snapping at air and screaming in pain Seadramon thrashed around wildly a few times before falling backwards into the lake and not resurfacing.

The kids and digimon on the island whooped and cheered as Garurumon began to glow and shrank back into the more familiar form of Gabumon. Gabumon hauled himself up out of the water and TK ran up to him and threw his arms as far around his neck as they would go.

"Gabumon thank you so much for saving my brother!"

"Any time, little friend."

"You digivolved into Garurumon just in time," added Matt.

"And you Matt, you were so awesome against that sea monster!" TK exclaimed.

"You think so," said Matt flushing slightly.

"You were the man," agreed Gabumon.

"And you're the wolf man," Matt told his digimon.

This sent the group into gales of relieved laughter.

"Alright, alright, yes, you're very funny," said Joe, "You're a regular comedian Matt, but in case everyone's forgotten we're still stuck in the middle of this lake. How are we supposed to get back to shore?"

"Like this!" called Gomamon diving into the water, all of a sudden the lake was fair teaming with multi-coloured fish, "Fish power!"

Gomamon and his colourful fish friends all worked together to push the island back to the mainland and by the time they reached it the sun was most of the way risen. The group of kids and digimon was just glad to get off the rock and sprawled tiredly around the remains of their camp from the previous night.

"Gabumon can I use you as a pillow?" asked Mimi sweetly, "I promise I won't take your fur."

"I'm still a bit damp Mimi and I'm starting to smell," said Gabumon apologetically.

Mimi heaved a disappointed sigh, slouching tiredly next to Sora, Palmon at her side.

"I'm beginning to see a pattern here," Izzy said out of the blue, "This time only Gabumon was able to digivolve."

"You're right," said Sora propping herself up on one elbow, "Agumon was the only one who could do it before!"

"It's beginning to make sense!" exclaimed Tai after a moment of thought, "Agumon digivolved when I was in danger."

"That must be the answer," Izzy agreed, "Our digimon digivolve when we're in trouble!"

"Not just any trouble though," said Harry, Senamon translating for him, "I think we can all agree that we were all in serious trouble when both Shellmon and Seadramon were attacking, no the trigger is that we have to be in direct mortal danger for our partners to digivolve."

"That must be it," Sora nodded.

"If that's the case I never want to digivolve again! I don't ever want you to be in that kind of danger Harry!" said Senamon protectively, crawling into Harry's lap.

A snoring Mimi slumped into Sora's back.

"Hey," she said fondly, "Watch it."

She laid the sleeping Mimi out on the ground beside her tucking a stray lock of brownish hair behind the other girl's ear with a soft smile.

"We've been here less than a day and I think she's put some muscle on her."

"Yeah, maybe if she puts in the effort she'll become a hard bodied machine just like I am," said Agumon.

"I hope she grows pink wings just like my wings!" chirped Piyomon.

"You must be kidding," murmured Mimi in her sleep.

The other humans and their digimon partners soon joined her in slumber. Joe and Gomamon sprawled out on their bellies while Harry and Izzy curled up against each other, Senamon and Tentomon pressed against their backs. Palmon was using Mimi's hip as a pillow and Sora was curled up against the tree Piyomon had perched herself in.

Tai yawned and stretched, Agumon was already dozing in the shade of the tree next to Sora and Tai was moving to join his digimon when he heard Matt playing on his harmonica. Moving quietly Tai walked a little ways down from the main group and spotted Matt, TK, Gabumon and Patamon immediately. The digimon and TK were already asleep on either side of the blond.

Tai smiled to himself and turned to return to Agumon, not wanting to disturb the scene. Matt had already spotted him though.

"Tai, wait a sec," he said.

Tai winced to himself, and came out from behind the bushes to face Matt properly, an easy grin on his face.

"Good work today hero," he said.

"Thanks," Matt said flushing slightly, "Tai, I just wanted to say thanks, for yesterday, with Shellmon."

Tai blinked in surprise.

"Sure thing. No problem."

"You know, you're tougher than you look. You got the life nearly squeezed out of you same as me, and I can guess it hurts like hell, same as me. But you don't even show it."

Tai grimaced touching his side gingerly.

"What's the point in worrying everybody when there's nothing to do about it except wait for it to heal? Sora especially would pitch a fit."

He raised his shirt and Matt gasped, blue eyes going wide at the sight of the thick ugly stripes of black and blue that wound around Tai's ribs.

"My god…Tai…"

"Don't worry about it, you'll be just as pretty by the time you wake up," grinned Tai letting his shirt fall back down to cover the bruising.

"You think?"

"Yeah, like I said, don't tell Sora."

Matt laughed softly, and next to him TK stirred a bit shifting in his sleep.

"Get some sleep hero," Tai ordered turning his back on the foursome.

"Follow your own advice," Matt retorted.

Still grinning, Tai settled in next to Agumon and did as he was told for once.

* * *

**AN: **So tired...I really wanted to get this update up tonight, I'll definitely regret it when I have to get up for work tomorrow morning. A quick note, I had a reviewer point out to me that Piyomon should really be spelt Biyomon if I'm using the english names. I realize this but for continuity's sake I'm just going to keep on spelling it Piyomon, though I might go through and change it at a later date or in the final swath of editing if it bothers people that badly.

Hope you guys all enjoyed this installment, and please drop me a review on your way back to reality to let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5: Birdramon's First Flight

**Keepers of the Worlds**

**Chapter Five: Birdramon's First Flight**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or Digimon any dialogue you recognize was taken from Digimon Adventure SSN 1 ep. 4 and is even less mine than everything else.

**Author's Note:** Hey guys I'm back! Woohoo! Can I just say this update was really friggin' hard? Yeah. Also a good few months overdue. Thanks to everyone who took the time to review, alert and favourite! Love you guys, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

Special mention goes out to Whisper because, really, five reviews for the last chapter, Ravenclaw-Girl28 who took the time to PM me for an update (go check out her story Intertwined Destinies, it's well written and has an interesting plot so far), and You Know Who You Are But I Promised I Wouldn't Name Names who was helping me with the first draft of this chapter and my character concept for Senamon and who I have kept waiting for far too long (Four Months)! Thanks guys!

Now go forth and read!

* * *

Harry tried very hard to ignore the voices seeping through the fog of a good dream, the details of which he, of course, couldn't quite remember. It really wasn't fair that his nightmares would always linger and repeat when his good dreams slipped from his mind like water.

"Should we wake them or wait for them to wake up on their own?"

"Don't wake them up yet!"

"Ooh I wish I had my camera! That is just too cute!"

"Whatever Mimi."

"Hey Izzy has a camera, let's get a picture or two before they wake up!"

"It's not working, remember? None of the electronics are working."

"Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten."

Harry finally felt annoyed enough to raise his head and blink his eyes open just enough to glare at the noisemakers.

"Harry's awake! Morning Harry!" said TK cheerfully, waving.

Matt gave Harry a vaguely apologetic look and went back to munching on a red fruit occasionally tearing off pieces and subtly feeding them to the oblivious TK.

"It is far too early for this," Harry groaned to himself.

All he really wanted to do was shoo the rest of the group out of the clearing they'd camped in overnight and go back to sleep. It took a moment for him to realize why Tai was giving him such a teasing look. Sometime during the course of the morning he and Izzy had managed to wrap themselves around each other until it was hard to say where one boy ended and the other began. Izzy was still fast asleep, his face buried in Harry's stomach and his arm slung over his hip. He was even snoring softly.

The redhead was like a small furnace, so deliciously warm that Harry, who was perpetually cold, was more than willing to burrow back into his embrace and sleep for another eight hours. Instead he sat up with another put-upon groan and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, straightening his glasses.

"Izzy," Harry said shaking the redhead gently, "Hey Izzy, wake up."

Izzy mumbled something unintelligible and his hold on Harry's waist tightened as he resisted walking the road to consciousness.

Flushing brightly, Harry jabbed one bony knee with considerably less gentleness into the soft flesh of Izzy's side. Izzy jerked upright, his black eyes blinking open and stared into Harry's eyes unseeingly for a long moment, their faces barely an inch apart.

"What…Harry?"

"Rise and shine," said Harry weakly.

"Huh?"

"You guys were asleep for a really long time," TK put in cheerfully, "So we kind of ate all your fish, but there's still lots of fruit if you want breakfast."

"Fish?" Izzy rolled off of Harry and glanced around the clearing dazedly rubbing at his face, "What time is it?"

"Who knows," shrugged Tai, "By the sun we figure it's somewhere around noon."

"We're just about ready to get going," added Joe.

"We talked it over and we decided to head east," said Matt.

Sora snorted.

"You mean you and Tai argued about it and Joe had to separate you while Mimi and I made a decision."

"Like I said, we talked it over and decided to head east."

Harry smirked a bit. Senamon trotted over a blue fruit in his mouth and dropped it into Harry's lap.

"You should eat, Harry, breakfast is the most important meal of the day," the digimon informed him.

"Where did you hear that?" asked Harry, surprised to hear the familiar Earth saying dropping from the lips of a digimon.

"From Matt and Tai."

"Ah," Harry said, taking a bite of the fruit obediently.

Presumably the older boys had been forcing TK to eat a large breakfast, it wouldn't do to set a bad example even if, having just woken, Harry wasn't really all that hungry.

With a pleased flick of his tail Senamon darted away and returned with a red fruit for Izzy. The still drowsy pre-teen looked at it quizzically for a long moment before patting the fox-like digimon on the head, careful to avoid his horns.

"So why did we decide to go east?" asked Izzy taking a bite of his own breakfast.

"Well, assuming that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west here, the only thing south is that Lake and north is back the way we came and after that I picked east and Mimi picked west and we played rock, paper, scissors," Sora explained.

"Did that support Tai's decision or Matt's?" the redhead asked curiously.

"Neither," chuckled Joe, "Matt wanted to go around the lake and keep heading south while Tai was all for going west."

Harry and Izzy quickly finished their fruit, washed up a bit in the lake and found a private spot in which to relieve themselves and the group set out east through the forest.

"Do we have an idea of what we might be looking for?" asked Izzy as the heat of the noonday sun gave way to the cool shade of the forest.

"Anything that screams civilization?" suggested Tai.

"But that hasn't really been productive so far, has it?" commented Izzy, thinking, "All the evidence of human habitation, like these road signs for example, has proven to be distinctly unhelpful with regards to finding actual people."

"Maybe it's more subtle," suggested Matt with a shrug, "A road, a village."

"If there even are people on this island," Sora reminded them.

All of a sudden there was a loud buzzing whush. Sora jogged forward a bit look up at the sky through a break in the thick foliage where the forest dropped away on the one side to create a small cliff.

"Whoa, hey, look at that!" she called squinting up at the sky.

"Did you guys hear that?" asked Tai.

"It seems to be some kind of aircraft," said Matt.

"It looked like a big flying gear to me," said Sora.

"Admit it, my alien theory is becoming more plausible," said Izzy.

"Never," said Harry dryly.

"What do you think it is?" asked Mimi.

"Should we follow it?" suggested Sora, "I mean if it is an aircraft, a really weird looking one, maybe there's someone flying it?"

"I wanna get a better look," said TK craning his neck trying to see.

TK took another step forward and the root he was standing on broke with a crack. He teetered on the edge of the small plateau, arms wheeling frantically.

"Watch it!" cried Matt.

Matt and Tai both rushed forward. Tai got there first, catching TK under the arms and lifting him off his precarious perch.

"You've got to be more careful where you step TK," scolded Tai gently as he lifted the smaller boy up to eye level, "What if I hadn't been here to catch you, hey? Or what if that root had been a snake or worse?"

"Gee, I'm sorry," said TK blue eyes wide.

"Just try and be more aware of your surroundings, okay?" said Tai setting him down on more solid ground, "I need you here and safe to keep that brother of yours out of trouble."

"Oi!" Matt protested aiming a swat at the back of Tai's head that the laughing goggle headed boy dodged easily.

"Piyomon there aren't really snakes in this forest, are there?" asked TK nervously, halting the impromptu game of tag.

"No, just giant flying bugs and other unpleasant digimon," Piyomon answered reassuringly.

"Don't you worry TK, I'll take care of them," said Patamon fiercely, flying into TK's arms.

TK smiled adoringly at his digimon friend and hugged him close.

"Well, now that that's settled, let's get going," said Sora.

"Nothing is settled, and where would we go? We don't even know where we are," said Matt contrarily.

"Now don't you start up again," Tai said, "We all agreed we would keep moving and see if we could find signs of intelligent life here."

"Hey, is he saying that digimon are not intelligent? Is that what he's saying?" demanded Piyomon, all the while nuzzling her partner's hip affectionately.

"Not at all," Sora assured her, "But I think Tai is right in saying that we need to keep moving in order to find out where we are and if there are any other people here. We just have to keep moving and stick together!"

"Together sounds good!" chirped Piyomon.

Matt moved past them on the path, Gabumon at his side.

"Moving right along here folks, the next stop on our tour will be the forest of irrelevant road signs, please stick to the path provided and remember that this tour does not allow flash photography," he said in a mocking tour-guide-esque voice.

Tai, TK, Izzy and Harry all chuckled as they followed the tall blond.

"Great, we're completely lost and these guys are making jokes," Sora complained to Piyomon rolling her eyes.

"At least they have a sense of humour, unlike someone I could mention," said Gomamon pointedly, needling his human partner.

Joe either didn't understand that Gomamon was talking about him or was just unfazed because he didn't comment.

"Wait a second guys, I need to tie my shoe," said Joe crouching down.

"Joe you really need new shoes," said Mimi.

"What's wrong with my shoes?" asked Joe indignantly.

"Those old things went out of style a good hundred years ago," Mimi answered.

Joe opened his mouth to retort when Matt interrupted.

"Hey," called Matt from the front of the procession, looking through the gap in the trees, "Telephone poles!"

"Telephone poles? That's odd isn't it?" commented Sora.

"Let's follow them and see where they lead," suggested Matt.

"Why?" complained Joe, standing, "They'll only lead to trouble."

"Do telephone poles really count as being more subtle signs of human habitation then telephone booths or a trolley car or even road signs?" Izzy asked mostly to himself.

"Does it matter?" asked Tai with a shrug, "Besides that flying gear-thing they're the only sign of people we've seen so far today."

The whole group filed out of the forest and stood on the edge of a desert filled with telephone poles. The forest stretched out like a wall of green behind them on both sides and in the background to their left they could see a tall almost perfectly conical mountain.

"Hey look!" cried Izzy pointing up at the sky, "It's the alien saucer!"

"And it's headed for a close encounter!" added Matt.

Sure enough the black gear that was whirling through the air like a Frisbee crashed into the top of the mountain, a large plume of dust rising from the impact site.

"Well," said Sora as they watched the dust dissipate, "I guess we won't be following that gear thing."

"I sure hope nobody was in there," added Mimi with a pouty little frown.

"Truthfully Mimi, I doubt that flying gear was a manned aircraft, if in fact it was an aircraft at all," said Izzy, "It was far too small."

"You think?"

"I'm positive."

"Okay," said Tai with a nod, "So what about this desert? Should we follow the telephone poles?"

"Well, it's not like anybody has any better ideas," said Matt.

Harry watched the tall blond carefully. Matt had his hands in his back pockets and seemed not to care whether or not the group thought his idea of following the telephone poles was a good idea or not but there was something in the tone of his voice that made Harry think that he would probably be angry and defensive if someone suggested something else.

"We could follow the treeline around the desert," said Harry, as much to test out his theory about Matt as to make the suggestion, "It would take longer but at least it would be shady. It looks like the telephone poles are all throughout the desert so I doubt we'd lose track of them."

"That would take too long, and we can't know for sure how far into the desert they go," Matt countered a tad defensively, as predicted.

"You're not wrong," shrugged Harry, Senamon translating for his partner, "I'm just not too keen on walking through a desert during the hottest part of the day."

Harry had never actually seen a real desert before, having only just recently ventured outside of Surrey, but he had spent long summer days gardening under the blistering midday sun and he figured that if that was hot wandering around under the blistering midday sun in an actual desert would be worse.

"Well," said Tai, after a moment of staring out at the desert, apparently thinking it all over, "I think we should go for it. I mean we can't exactly cross a desert in the middle of the night with a total of one flashlight and a fire-breathing digimon so it's pretty much either we tough it out or go around."

That seemed to settle it for the group. If Tai thought that going through the desert was what should be done then that was what they would do. Somehow over the course of the past few days the charismatic boy had become something like their leader.

About five minutes after embarking on their desert hike the sight of muted gold-grey sand and telephone poles became boring and Harry took TK up on his offer of Japanese lessons. The first thing he learned was the word for sand and hot followed soon after. The others pitched in a lot as well, expanding Harry's vocabulary and correcting his pronunciation, having nothing else better to do and the task kept their minds of the heat for a short while.

Izzy wiped the sweat from his brow with a grimace.

"It's so hot I can feel the heat coming up through my socks!" TK exclaimed.

"Well, TK, maybe you should put your shoes back on," Matt suggested with a fond eye roll.

"But then I'll get sand in my shoes!" TK protested crinkling his nose at the thought.

"And just what do you think is going to happen when you go and stick your sandy socks back into your clean shoes?" Matt asked rhetorically, "Just put them back on, you're gonna burn your feet and besides no one wants to smell your sweaty feet."

Grudgingly TK got his shoes out of his backpack and quickly slid them back on his feet grimacing when, as Matt had said his socks transferred the sand to the inside of his shoes.

"This hot desert air is going to destroy my complexion," moaned Mimi not long after, "How much further is it?"

"Is that all you're worried about, seriously?" exclaimed Joe, "We'll be lucky if we even survive this hike!"

"I don't think the situation is quite that dire," Harry said dryly, "After all we do still have Mimi's canteen full of water and a whole mess load of fruit, and this island is only so big after all."

Senamon translated for his partner.

"Harry's right, we may be incredibly uncomfortable but I don't think there's any real danger," agreed Izzy, "Besides Joe, we've only been walking for a few minutes."

"It'll all be worth it if we can find some people," Tai said.

"Does anybody besides me notice that none of these telephone poles have connecting wires?" asked Sora glancing around.

"She's right," said Izzy after a moment of observation, "I wonder if these really are telephone poles, or if they're some odd alien equivalent."

"Enough with the aliens already," Harry groaned exasperatedly shaking his head.

"Hey, you remember those freaky telephone booths, and that street car from before?" asked Mimi.

"Yeah, what about them?" asked Tai.

"Well both times we ran into supposedly human technology, it acted odd and then we were attacked by large, angry digimon," Harry pointed out.

"Oh, that's right," said Mimi after Palmon had translated for the rest of the group, "I'd forgotten about that. I was just wondering if anybody else remembered how oddly they were acting because, well, just look at my watch."

Dutifully the group gathered around Mimi as she held out her wrist. When she flicked open the top to reveal the wildly spinning compass the whole group groaned.

"That's it!" cried Joe hysterically, throwing his hands up, "We're doomed! The heat has fried out brains and they're probably leaking out our ears as we speak!"

"Calm down, Joe," said Gomamon shaking his furry head at his partner, "You should conserve some of that manic energy for walking."

"You know Mimi, for someone who hates hiking you sure have a lot of compasses," Tai said bending down to get a closer look, "Of course none of them actually work."

"Oh, well, that explains why I'm always late to camp activities!" Mimi exclaimed cheerfully.

Izzy knelt down and scooped up a handful of the glittering sand.

"Look, this sand contains trace amounts of metal, that's probably what's affecting the compass," he said.

"This place just gets weirder and weirder, I don't like it one bit!" Sora exclaimed, her hands curling into fists.

"Calm down Sora, we're stuck here for now so we just have to bear with it," Tai said.

"Alright, I've taken a soil sample, analyzed the barometric pressure, and calculated the probable relative humidity," said Izzy, interrupting.

"And what did you find out?" asked Sora.

"It's really, really hot."

"I could have told you that," snorted Matt.

"It's going to be alright just keep putting one foot in front of the other," Tai said encouragingly.

"We're going to be okay, just keep moving along," said Mimi.

"My head is baking," panted Palmon, "If this goes on for too much longer I'm going to look like a wilted salad."

"Here, you wear my hat for a while," said Mimi taking off her wide-brimmed pink monstrosity and setting it on her friends head with a smile, "You need it more than I do."

"Thanks Mimi."

"You know," Mimi continued, "This beach would be a lot more popular with just a couple small things, like an ocean, a gentle breeze, snack bar, ooh and hunky lifeguards."

She giggled at the thought.

"I think the lack of those things is why they call this a desert rather than a beach," Harry deadpanned.

"Oh, Sora, I'm so hot I don't know if I can go any further," sighed Piyomon.

"I know it's hard, but you have to try and stay positive," said Sora, "Let's all pretend that it's raining."

"Oh, yay! I simply adore the rain!" cried Piyomon, perking right up at the thought and nuzzling Sora happily.

"Me too," said Matt, "But it's time for a reality check, this isn't getting any better, we haven't come across anything that looks like water or shade or people, in fact the view hasn't changed much at all in the past couple of hours. It might be time to cut our losses and head back to the forest while we still have the energy."

"I'll vote for that," agreed Joe.

"Wait, hold on just a second guys, I think I see something," said Tai taking his mini-telescope out of his pocket, "If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing…"

"What is it Tai?" asked Izzy eagerly.

"It's not a mirage. It's really a village, with a lake!"

"That's great, real water!" exclaimed Joe happily.

"If there's a village maybe there will be people there," said Izzy.

"And shade!" added Palmon.

"Hey maybe they'll have hat's for sale, we could get you a cute green one! Or maybe something made out of straw, with a pink ribbon!" said Mimi grinning.

"A village with food and water, I'm hungry enough to eat broccoli!" said TK.

"What's broccoli?" asked Patamon tilting his head to one side with a puzzled expression.

"Come on guys, let's get out of this desert!" exclaimed Tai.

"Yeah!" chorused the group.

They picked up the pace and soon after they stopped seeing telephone poles and the sand under their feet turned into hard pack, with a tuft of grass here and there. At the bottom of that ridge, as Tai had promised, there was a village.

The problem was that the village huts weren't even really large enough to fit TK and the digimon, let alone Mimi and Joe who were both over five foot seven. The village was also inhabited by a large number of overly cheerful Pyocomon.

"Wow, from so far away everything looked so much bigger," said Tai blinking as he studied the village and its surroundings up close.

"But they're so cute and tiny!" squealed Mimi.

The village consisted of a spattering of small huts with neat straw roofs, and a large glassy lake with what looked to be the prow of a sunken ocean liner poking out of its depths. It was home to a good fifty Pyocomon who had all gathered around the visiting digimon and their human partners to welcome them enthusiastically.

"Welcome!" chanted the Pyocomon, "Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to our village! We are called Pyocomon! We are so wonderfully glad to have you all as our guests! Please be welcome!"

"Okay, question," said Piyomon authoritatively, silencing the chittering Pyocomon, "Who here knows where we can get a drink?"

"And just what do giant digimon drink?" piped up one of the Pyocomon curiously, addressing Sora.

"Me?" said Sora pointing at herself, "I'm no digimon."

"My friend Sora is what's called a human being. Yes, I know they look funny but in spite of this they are all very nice," said Piyomon.

"What's a human being?"

"If you are not digimon what are you doing here in Digiworld?"

The Pyocomon began chirping and squeaking questions at Piyomon too fast for the others to follow very easily.

"This is not good, there's no way we're going to fit in this place," groaned Joe.

"Relax Joe," said Tai flashing the taller boy an easy grin, "At least the natives here are friendly."

"They're all so adorable, if I could I'd take one home and put it on my bed with all my other stuffed animals!" said Mimi brightly.

Matt huffed, annoyed, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"There she goes again. Do you think Mimi hears the same things we hear? I'm honestly not sure anymore."

"Maybe she's an alien spy," said Izzy.

"One more mention of aliens and I'm going to beat the paranoia out of your head with a stick," Harry warned the redhead.

"TK is tired and hungry," Patamon said fluttering worriedly around his partner's head.

"He's not the only one," sighed Joe his stomach burbling emptily.

They'd passed around the last of the fruit while they were still walking through the desert and it was beginning to look like no dinner unless that lake happened to have fish in it.

"Piyomon just when did you digivolve?" asked one of the Pyocomon.

"When I met Sora, we share a special bond which is magical," answered Piyomon.

"You don't talk like us anymore either, is this how all Piyomon talk?" queried another.

"No, it's how the big ones talk, well, except for Harry. I suppose I must have picked it up from Sora. She is a wonderful and kind human being and I have already learned a lot from her."

"We still don't understand how you digivolved. What is it about being around human beings that makes it happen?"

"Sora needed me," Piyomon declared fiercely, "I had to protect her."

"She needed to protect me," Sora muttered to herself, "I guess that's why she's always following me around and keeping so close."

"That's part of it I guess," said Tai.

Sora started slightly, lost in her thoughts as she was she hadn't heard her friend approach.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Tai grinned easily, casually sweeping his hands up behind his head and dropping down to sit beside her lotus style.

"Really it's because of the bond. The two of you are tied together in ways that we probably won't ever fully understand, just like with me and Agumon and Matt and Gabumon. Doesn't it feel like you've known Piyomon forever? Like you'd do anything for her?"

Sora didn't answer right away and thought hard about what Tai was saying. Did she feel that way with Piyomon? She wasn't sure. The large pink bird-like creature had become precious to her in just a few days, it was true, but really Sora mostly felt like she didn't know what Piyomon was thinking. She tilted her head to watch Piyomon interact with the Pyocomon out of the corner of her eye.

"When she was in danger a power came flowing through me, I couldn't have fought it even if I'd wanted to. All of a sudden I just knew how I should change, and then I did change. I digivolved!"

"That is amazing!"

"How incredible!"

The Pyocomon all exclaimed.

"We're pretty lucky kids," Sora said, turning back to Tai, "You know all this time I've been so freaked out by this place that I didn't realize, just how fortunate we were to have made such wonderful friends."

"Sora!" cheeped Piyomon happily, "We've all been invited to have dinner with the Pyocos. They have offered to share their food with all of us!"

"Yay!" cheered the group.

"Let's see hands if you want lemonade!" called Joe.

"Do they even have lemons in the Digiworld?" asked TK.

"What's a lemon?" asked Gomamon.

"Guess not," sighed Joe, drooping in his disappointment.

"What do Pyocomon eat?" asked TK looking around.

Despite having eaten only a single blue fruit this morning and another red fruit on the walk through the desert Harry wasn't really feeling the effects of hunger the way the rest of the group seemed to be, he blamed that on the Dursleys and their love of the 'no meals' punishment. Izzy in particular seemed to be fantasizing about some dream meal as he stared off into space.

"Look water!" shouted TK suddenly, dashing across the village.

"Water? Where?" asked Izzy, jolted out of his musings.

Turning to face the direction TK was running Harry caught sight of the dainty little spout of water that had caught the blond boy's attention. Just the sight of it made Harry's mouth water in anticipation of ridding his tongue and throat of the dry sandpapery feeling that had come over them.

"Look everybody, a fresh water fountain!"

The group of kids and digimon followed TK over to the fountain.

"Gomamon, there will be no swimming in the fountain!" Joe said sternly.

"What do you take me for?" said Gomamon shooting Joe an offended look.

"The water for this fountain is piped in from a spring on the top of Mihurashi Mountain," explained one of the Pyocomon, "It's the best water in the world!"

"Forget the world," said Tentomon, "Mount Mihurashi water is the best in the entire galaxy!"

"Where's Mount Mihurashi?" TK asked Tentomon.

"Up there!" chorused the Pyocomon turning as one to face the conical mountain the kids had seen before.

"Hey, isn't that a volcano?" said TK squinting at the distant mountain, "Isn't that what grandma says Matt? You can tell because it's a perfect cone."

"Yeah, TK, you're right."

"Yes, it is indeed a volcano and it is active but that is okay because the heat boils away any germs," said another of the Pyocomon.

"Boiling is right," said Joe nervously, "Is the fountain meant to be doing that?"

The children and various digimon all gathered around the fountain and sure enough, just as Joe had observed, the water was boiling away into a hissing column of steam.

"No it's never done this before," said one of the Pyocomon setting the others off in a frenzy of worried chittering.

"TK get back," ordered Matt sharply taking a few cautious steps away from the fountain and dragging the smaller blond boy with him.

Izzy was examining the fountain with a furrowed brow he moved to take a step closer and Harry caught him by the sleeve.

"It's too hot," he told the redhead warningly in Japanese, making good use of TK's earlier lesson and the various complaints of the day.

"I just want to get a look at the bottom of the fountain, the mineral deposits and vigor of the bubbles should give me an approximate idea of what sort of volcanic phenomenon is causing the fountain to boil," Izzy complained shooting Harry an annoyed glance over his shoulder.

All of a sudden the ground seemed to shudder and with a soft rumble the fountain erupted into a huge cloud of steam.

"Get back!" cried Tentomon shoving Harry and Izzy further away from the fountain.

The two boys stared a bit wide-eyed, watching from their position sprawled on the ground as the fountain erupted in a thick white pillar of steam.

"Bloody hell," Harry breathed into the shocked silence.

"That was cool," said TK after another minute, sufficiently awed that his blue eyes were the size of dinner plates.

Matt's hold on his little brother tightened.

"Are you guys alright?" Tai asked cautiously moving around to their side of the fountain and watching as Tentomon and Senamon urged their stunned partners to their feet and further away from the fountain, "What happened?"

"The water evaporated!" the Pyocomon declared shocked.

"It seems that some sort of volcanic activity is affecting the water supply to the fountain and thus the fountain itself," Izzy explained sounding slightly shaky.

"Does that mean there's no more water?" asked TK.

"No," said one of the Pyocomon, "We'll be alright because the lake is always full of water."

"I'm gonna go check it out!" Tai declared dashing off.

A few of the Pyocomon broke off from the main group to follow Tai.

"Let's all go," agreed Matt.

The kids and their digimon partners followed after the two older boys and the worried Pyocomon down to the lakeshore and when they got there they could only gape.

"It's empty," said Tai shocked.

"That's impossible," Izzy said, shaking his head vigorously, "The heat radiating from underground volcanic activity couldn't have boiled away an entire lake within the space of a few minutes! It just wouldn't be hot enough!"

"Is there any other source of water for the village?" Tai asked the Pyocomon nearest to him.

"There is a deep well in the village square but we haven't used it for a very long time," the Pyocomon answered.

"Let's try that then!"

Once again they made the run from the lakeshore back to the village. Word spread quickly amongst the agitated Pyocomon that the lake was dried up and they were quick to fetch the long unused bucket and lead Tai to the well in the centre of the village.

Tai quickly checked the rope and knots to make sure they were sound, and then tossed the bucket into the well without compunction. The group gathered in the centre of the village held their breath, listening as the bucket banged against the sides of the well a few times and then came to a halt with a muffled plop.

"Mud?" asked Sora looking over to Tai.

"Could be, I'm gonna pull the bucket up," he answered with a determined face.

Tai began yanking on the rope, frowning all the while.

"It's too light," he told the group, "I think we might have lost the bucket."

"I watched you check the knots," Matt protested.

"Tai let go!" shouted Agumon head butting his partner and causing him to drop the rope.

Not a moment too soon as a crackling tongue of flame quickly crawled up and devoured the rope that had been in Tai's hands not a moment before.

"Thanks Agumon," breathed Tai.

"Something is seriously wrong here," Sora declared hugging herself around the middle.

Izzy leaned over the side of the well peering down into its depths.

"Izzy, that's dangerous!" Tentomon protested.

"It's alright, the water has already all boiled away," Izzy said waving his partner off, "Look, its glowing red and orange."

Obediently the kids and their digimon peered down into the well and sure enough, at the bottom of the black pit there was a faint fiery glow.

"What is it?" queried Mimi and TK almost in unison.

"It's an underground lava flow, a river of molten rock moving under the village," Izzy explained, "I just don't understand what could be causing such sudden violent volcanic phenomena when there's no indication that an eruption is imminent."

"How could this happen?" wailed the Pyocomon, "What are we going to do?"

"Now, everybody just stay calm, okay?" said Tai authoritatively, "We need to think this through."

"You guys!" Matt exclaimed suddenly, "You remember that big flying gear from before? Didn't it crash into that mountain?"

"You're right!" agreed Sora, "Of all the mountains it could have crashed into it just had to Mihurashi Mountain!"

"And that's the place where the water comes from," added Joe.

"That's right," agreed one of the Pyocomon, "The majority of the water comes from a lake at the top of Mount Mihurashi so something like a gear crashing into it could easily affect our water supply."

"Mmhm," nodded Izzy, "An impact like that, especially if there was damage to the internal structures of the volcano could trigger some of these phenomena. What I don't understand is how the effects managed to spread so quickly."

"Maybe we should investigate," suggested Matt.

"We can't!" the Pyocomon protested, "We don't dare go up there, the Mountain is home to a fiery digimon called Meramon. He is hideously dangerous!"

A shudder ran through the group of Pyocomon as the rest of the villagers chittered their agreement.

"Don't worry," said Tai, "I can get a good look at what's going on with my mini-telescope."

He pulled the small gadget out of his pants pocket and directed the lens up to the peak of Mount Mihurashi, occasionally fiddling with one of the dials.

"Do you see it Tai?" asked Agumon.

"Yeah, I've got a good view of it now," Tai answered, "Hey Izzy what are some danger signs I should look for?"

"Black smoke or ash clouds, particularly violent or irregular bursts of steam from side vents fires among the vegetation and any actual lava are all bad signs."

Tai nodded and peered hard through the telescope. Harry chewed anxiously on his lower lip and wished fervently that he could see what was going on at the top of that mountain. He didn't have much experience with volcanoes, living in Surrey, but he'd seen the occasional violent eruption on the telly as part of a movie or a nature show that the Dursleys happened to be watching and he wasn't eager to be anywhere near an erupting volcano.

"Whoa!" Tai exclaimed suddenly.

The group automatically turned their heads to where the older boy was looking and even they could see the glow of a huge fire at the top of the mountain.

"What is it?" demanded Joe shrilly, "Is it an eruption?"

"No," said Tai after a moment, "It doesn't look like lava...it looks like a digimon! This Meramon you said he was a fire-type digimon, right?"

"That's right!" agreed the Pyocos.

"I can see him clearly now and he's coming this way! He's hurtling down the side of the mountain! It almost looks like he's crying...he seems to be in pain, like serious pain."

"Oh no!"

The cry echoed from the mouths of dozens of frightened Pyocomon.

"Meramon's flames can burn through anything in his path!"

"If he's coming this way the village will be destroyed!"

"What are we going to do?"

"Oh no! Oh no! No! No! No!"

"Meramon never comedown off the mountain though, this is very strange behaviour for him!"

"Tai said that he looked like he was in pain," said Senamon, "Could it be that the crash hurt him in some way?"

"It looks like he's completely on fire, that's got to be pretty painful right?" said Tai looking unsure.

"Meramon is a fiery type digimon," Palmon protested, "He shouldn't feel any pain from his own flames! It's his nature!"

"It looks almost like he's crying," said Tai putting away his telescope.

"We have to decide what we're going to do and fast," said Matt grimly, "He's already hit the forest, you can see the fires from here."

"I've never seen him move so fast!" cried one of the Pyocomon.

"He's headed straight for the village, we have to evacuate!" said Joe frantically.

"Evacuate to where?" Sora demanded, "He's too fast to run from! If we stay very still he might run right past us it doesn't seem like he's going to stop."

"We can't count on that!" Matt snapped.

"What about the boat? It's metal right? He can't burn that," said Tai, "Its big enough we can all hide there."

"Whatever we're doing let's do it now, I can see him getting closer!" Harry shouted.

"Come on, start running!" Mimi ordered taking off at full tilt.

The other kids, their digimon partners and the Pyocomon followed after the older girl as once again they traced the path from the village down to the lakeshore.

The Pyocomon moved in what amounted to a panicked swarm, throwing themselves over the ledge that marked the start of the lake with little regard for their safety. Harry and the other humans had to be more careful as they slid down the side of the bluff with less care then they might have otherwise exercised.

Harry's feet hit the solid earth of the lakebed and all of a sudden it was like he was back walking in that desert the heat radiating up through the thin soles of his trainers. Next to him Izzy tripped and stumbled hissing as his bare knees made contact with the burning hot ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked hauling the redhead to his feet.

"I'm fine, let's go!" said Izzy urgently.

The boat was only about half-way across the breadth of the lake but in their panic some of the Pyocomon continued fleeing right past their shelter and had to be corralled by Senamon, Agumon and Palmon while Tentomon, Patamon, Gabumon and their partners led the Pyocomon through the interior of the ship to the upper decks. A great number of younger Pyocomon had, in their fear, latched on to the taller figures of Joe and Mimi and the two teens had to carry them inside with some help from Gomamon.

"Alright, that's good, follow Gomamon inside!" Tai called out to the swarming Pyocomon as they managed to organise themselves into what passed for a queue.

"Hey! No pushing, there's room for all of you!" Matt scolded his voice echoing from above where he and TK were directing things on the upper deck of the shipwreck.

"This way, come on! Follow the others into the ship!" Harry urged manhandling another stray Pyocomon Senamon herded his way into the rush headed for the door.

"I've got the next batch!" Joe called all but invisible under a blanket of clingy digimon-in-training.

"Spread out, away from the door, make room!" Izzy instructed.

Tentomon flew up to join Izzy on the upper decks, a squirming Pyocomon in his pincers.

"Alright, are we missing anyone?" Sora demanded.

Then she seemed to realize that Piyomon was not by her side. Glancing up at the ride where the lake had formerly met with the shore she spotted her digimon partner leading the last wave of panicked Pyocomon over the edge.

"That's it, just follow the one in front of you!" she ordered wings flared wide to keep any of the younger digimon from veering off course.

"Piyomon!" called Sora, "Get down from there while there's still time!"

"I can't leave until all my friends are safe Sora!"

Sora grit her teeth and turned away from her post opposite Tai ushering the Pyocos through the door into the boat and running back the other way towards the ridge.

"Fine, then I'm coming up there after you!"

"Sora!" Tai protested, unable to do anything as the last wave of charging bouncing Pyocomon all but overwhelmed him.

"Sora you'll never make it in time!" cried Mimi.

"Sora come back!" called Matt.

Harry took up Sora's former position opposite Tai and together they managed to get everybody aboard the ship. The two boys turned to watch anxiously as Sora crossed the lakebed with long-legged strides and Piyomon turned and did one last search for any stragglers.

"Oh no!" cried Tai suddenly.

Harry spotted what had the older boy so worried in a second. The flaming figure of Meramon appeared on the ridge and Piyomon had her back turned to him. Meramon was shaped vaguely like a muscular giant of a man he was at least eight or nine feet tall and it seemed like apart from a flat pair of blue eyes and a gaping slash of a mouth that he was made of flame.

"Watch out!" shouted Sora, "Piyomon he's right behind you!"

Piyomon to her credit didn't look the least bit frightened when she turned to face the fiery digimon.

"Leave us alone Meramon! We're not bothering you!" she cried wings flaring as though she could stand as a barrier between the gigantic flaming digimon and her friends.

Meramon swatted her off the side of the cliff with one hand and an annoyed growling cry.

Piyomon screeched as she went flying tumbling end over end through the air and unable to get her wings out to stop her fall.

"Piyo! Piyo!" cried Sora.

At the last moment Sora managed to get herself under her falling digimon catching the pink bird in her arms before they both crashed into the ground kicking up a plume of dust.

"Are they okay?" Tai demanded, "Can you see?"

"I see them Tai, they're alright!" Agumon answered.

"Piyomon is attacking Meramon on her own!" Senamon called out.

Harry and the others caught sight of the green flare and heard Piyomon's increasingly familiar shout of Spiral Twister.

"We have to go help her!" cried Tai, "He's too big to handle alone!"

It seemed that the others had been thinking along the same lines as Tai because while Matt, Joe, Mimi and TK stayed to keep the Pyocomon from hurting themselves in their panicked frenzy, Izzy and their digimon joined Tai, Harry, Agumon and Senamon in rushing forward to try and help Sora and Piyomon.

"Fireball!" snarled Meramon tossing a flaming sphere that was almost as impressive as Greymon's Nova Blast at the defiant Piyomon.

Piyomon screeched in pain.

"Oh no, she's hit!"

"Come on guys we can beat him!" shouted Tai as they came up alongside Sora who had fallen to her knees when Piyomon fell for the second time.

"What we need is teamwork!" Izzy instructed, "All together now!"

Tentomon and the others with long range attacks all used them against Meramon simultaneously while Senamon, moving in a lightning quick slithering motion, moved to Piyomon's side and helped her gain her feet.

"Look there Sora, she's alright!" Harry said shaking the girl's shoulder to grab her attention, "Senamon's with her, she's fine."

Sora brushed off his hold and staggered to her feet rushing to her digimon's side.

"Wait Sora, it's dangerous!" cried Harry.

He got about two steps after her before Izzy latched onto his arm pulling him back.

"There's nothing you can do, trust that Piyomon and Senamon will protect her," said the redhead, worry etched into his features as the other digimon formed a protective barrier between the ridge and the humans.

"Those attacks barely even touched him! What do we do? If only we knew what was causing him to cry like that!" yelled Tai frustrated.

"Well the fire's not what's affecting him and I'm guessing it's not heartburn," snapped Izzy.

Meramon roared, the agony plainly etched into his features, and began to grow in size until he was easily fifteen feet tall and even in at the base of the ridge the kids could feel the heat from his flames as fresh beads of sweat rolled down their faces and soaked into their clothes.

"Is that the best you can do?" snarled the fiery digimon as molten tears rolled down the side of his face and disappeared back into the raging inferno of his body.

With a choppy movement the huge digimon jumped off the side of the ridge.

"They're too close, they're going to be crushed!" cried Harry straining against Izzy's surprisingly strong hold.

"We're going to be crushed and burned, we have to move back!" cried Tentomon.

"There's no time!" shouted Agumon.

"SORA!" screeched Piyomon.

The soft whir of the digivices filled the air, but it was Sora's that glowed like a bright green star on her belt as white light enveloped Piyomon.

"Piyomon digivolve to—Birdramon!"

With a cawing battle cry a great flaming bird with a muzzle full of fangs rather than a beak burst forth from the white light that had surrounded Piyomon and with two strokes of her enormous wings Birdramon flung Meramon back onto the top of the ridge with a great crash.

She wheeled around with surprising speed for a bird of her size and let out another war cry that all but dared Meramon to attempt another attack on her human partner, flaming wings flared wide and long talons glinting menacingly in the late afternoon sun.

"Piyomon must have digivolved into Birdramon to save Sora!" Izzy exclaimed.

"What you're going to fight me now Birdramon?" shouted Meramon with a mocking laugh throwing fireball after fireball in quick succession.

Not having the time to dodge or not wanting the attacks to potentially endanger her friends below Birdramon took them full on and though she cried out each time one hit she didn't seem to be badly injured by them.

"Birdramon move away!" cried Sora from where Senamon was trying to usher her back to the relative safety of the group.

Within a few wing beats Birdramon rose high over Meramon, the span of her body blotting out the sun. Her wings crackled and flared with light like so many fireworks. With another cry she pulled her wings in around her body as if to shield herself and then quick as a flash unfurled them again sending five, then ten, rocketing fireballs directly at Meramon's towering frame where they all struck true.

Meramon dropped to his knees with an outraged cry, shrinking in on himself until he was once again only eight or nine feet tall and with a groan that spoke of both pure suffering and instant relief the flames of his back parted and a spinning black disk was violently expelled from his body to explode in midair.

"It was that gear!" Izzy exclaimed, "It was driving him crazy!"

"Yeah well I guess if any of us had a big black gear inside of us we'd go a little crazy too," said Tai wonderingly, "Geez, the poor guy must have been in a lot of pain."

White light engulfed Birdramon once more as the wind kicked up by her great wings faded and she de-digivolved back into the more familiar Piyomon. Sora held out her arms and caught her feathered friend in a tight embrace.

"Sora!"

"Oh Piyo! I was so worried, but I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of you. Thank you so much for saving us!"

"I wasn't the least bit afraid, all I could think about was saving you because you're my partner and my very best friend and...well, you know."

"I do," Sora agreed burying her face in her digimon's feathers, "I really do."

The Pyocomon, now assured of their safety, left the boat in a swarm of pink and climbed back up the side of the ridge to check on the damage done to their village. Some of the braver ones arrayed themselves around Meramon watching his unconscious form with equal parts curiosity and wariness. By the time everybody had been brought back up the ridge and Izzy had finished examining the lake to make sure that it was indeed Meramon's flames that caused it to dry up and not some volcanic phenomenon the sun was on the verge of setting and had turned the sky from blue to soft pink and purple.

It was then that Meramon began to stir sitting up and clutching at his head, rubbing at what would have been his breastbone on a human.

"What...happened?" said the fire digimon thickly glancing around at all the Pyocomon.

"Meramon why did you attack our village and our guests?" chirped one of the Pyocomon.

"I couldn't control myself, all I could feel was the pain, like I was splintering from the inside out," answered Meramon.

"That sounds terrible!"

"How awful!"

"But Meramon if you were not in control of yourself who was controlling you?"

"That's something I think we'd all like to know," agreed Tai.

"I don't know," said Meramon slowly, trying to think about it, "The last thing I can remember clearly is being hit by that gear..."

"I think it's safe to say that whoever set that gear lose is the one who was controlling Meramon," Izzy said thoughtfully.

"Well that doesn't sound like someone we ought to go looking for," said Matt hovering protectively over TK.

"Finally someone talking sense, haven't I been saying that we shouldn't be rushing headlong into dangerous situations?" Joe exclaimed, feeling vindicated.

"Well we're all just happy that you're back to normal," said another of the Pyocomon.

"Yes," one of her fellows agreed, bouncing, "You're needed to protect Mihurashi Mountain!"

"I hope nothing like this ever happens again," said another to a chorus of chirping agreement.

Meramon rose to his feet, towering over both the group of kids and their digimon partners and the gathered Pyocomon.

"If you would all please excuse me, I think it's time I went home."

"Of course Meramon, you must be exhausted," cheeped one of the Pyocomon.

"Then I offer my sincerest apologies for the trouble I've caused, and I'll take my leave."

With a deep, respectful nod of his flaming head Meramon turned and began the sprint back up to the top of the mountain.

"Goodbye Meramon!"

"Goodbye!"

"May you always stay well."

The group of kids and digimon watched until Meramon's fiery figure faded to a mere pinprick of light against the tree line and then disappeared altogether.

"I just remembered you never did get that meal we promised you," Piyomon piped up into the ensuing silence, "You must be starving!"

As if on cue TK's stomach growled.

"My tummy's ready for some action," he groaned.

"Ugh, mine too, let's eat," Tai agreed.

"We'll feed you!" cheered the Pyocomon.

"Yes, come and eat!"

The Pyocomon all but fell over themselves rushing into their huts and bringing out stacks of neatly carved wooden bowls and filling them with scoops of large white seeds that seemed to come from a bulbous green plant that grew in a field off to one side of the village.

"What is this stuff?" Tai asked staring at the contents of his bowl with a skeptical expression.

"Never you mind and just eat it," scolded Mimi, "A gracious guest never insults his hosts' cooking!"

As if to demonstrate she popped a few seeds into her mouth and chewed them with a bright smile before thanking the Pyocomon munching nearest to her.

"I can't even tell if it is cooked," Tai complained.

"Eat as much as you like there's plenty of food for seconds!" said Piyomon happily.

"And there's probably a good reason for that," said Joe staring at his bowl as if he expected it to get up and walk away.

TK regarded his bowl curiously.

"Well it smells better than broccoli so maybe it'll taste better," he reasoned before digging in with unabashed gusto.

"Has anyone noticed we talk a lot about food?" asked Matt scooping up a handful of his own dinner and favouring it with a neutral expression before eating it.

"I think I'm gonna skip this one," Sora said, setting her bowl off to the side, "I'm not really hungry."

"Yeah," Joe agreed, "I don't like to eat on an empty stomach. Besides I don't know what this stuff is exactly but I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to it."

That earned a laugh out of everyone present.

"If we had a pot or something we could cook it like rice I'll bet," said Izzy with a wistful sigh.

Harry, who was eating with the efficiency of someone who is used to not knowing when or what his next meal might be, couldn't see what all the fuss was about. At least they had food and it was filling and edible.

"Stop being such a baby and eat it," he urged the redhead at his side, "We'll need to have energy for walking tomorrow, besides it's not bad, it tastes a bit like pumpkin seeds without the salt."

"I like fish better," said Senamon after relaying Harry's comment to Izzy.

"Given you dental structures I'm not surprised," said Izzy as hunger finally won out over distaste and he dug into his meal.

By the time the kids and their digimon finished eating their obligatory bowl of seeds the sun had fully set and the events of the day caught up to them. They helped their hosts wash up for the night and thanked them profusely for being so kind as to share their food and then collapsed on a grassy knoll on the outskirts of the village under the shade of a tall tree and fell promptly asleep.

* * *

**AN:** Whew! Can you say long chappie? What? You can't? I'll say it for you then, LOOOONG CHAPPPIIIEEE!

I'm still not sure how pleased I am with the outcome of this chapter, but I like it better than my first draft so I suppose that's something. Not a lot of Harry action again which is frustrating both for you all as readers and for myself as a writer but, as one reviewer pointed out, each of the digidestined kids have their time to shine and today was for Sora and Piyomon.

Suggestions for how to take this story to the next level as far as plot is concerned are most welcome especially for the next few chapters. My storyline puts the real deviations from the canon events around episode fifteen or so but I know you guys want to see more Harry and sooner so ideas and comments are definitely appreciated!

See you on the next go around!

-thegenuineimitation


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